Skip to main content

Full text of "The travels of a Hindoo to various parts of Bengal and Upper India"

See other formats 


Google 



This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project 

to make the world's books discoverable online. 

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject 

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books 

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. 

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the 

publisher to a library and finally to you. 

Usage guidelines 

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the 
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to 
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. 
We also ask that you: 

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for 
personal, non-commercial purposes. 

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine 
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the 
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help. 

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find 
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it. 

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just 
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other 
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of 
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner 
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe. 

About Google Book Search 

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers 
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web 

at |http: //books .google .com/I 



WORKS PUBLISHED BY TRtJBNER & CO., 

60, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 



Now ready, 1 vol., fcap Syo, pp. 200, cloth. Price 68. 

SCENES FROM THE RAMAYANA, 
MEGHADUTA, etc.' 

Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith, M.A. 

Contents. — Preface — Ayodhya — Ravan Doomed — The Birth of Rama — 
The Heir apparent — Manthara's Guile — Dasaratha's Oath — The Step- 
mother — Mother and Son — The Triumph of Love — Farewell! — The 
Hermit's Son— The Trial of Truth— The Forest— The Rape of Sita— 
Rama's Despair — The Messenger Cloud — Khumbakarna — The Suppliant 
Dove — True Glory — Feed the Poor—The Wise Scholar. 



JBy the Author of * History of the French in India, from the founding of 

Pondicherry to its capture in 1761.* 

Now ready, in 1 vol., crown 8vo, pp. 360, cloth. Price 6s. 

ESSAYS AND LECTURES ON INDIAN 
HISTORICAL SUBJECTS. 

I. 'A Native State and its Rulers. — IT. Lord Lake of Laswarrie. — III. 
Count Lally. — IV. Havelock. — V. Hyder All's last war. — VI. Sir Hugh 
Rose. — By Major G. B. Malleson, Bengal Staff Corps. 



New Edition of the First Volume of Professor Wilson's Translation 

of the Rig-Veda. 

Now ready, in 1 vol., 8vo, pp. lii. and 348, cloth, price 21«. 

RIG-VEDA SANHITA. 

A COLLECTION OF ANCIENT HINDU HYMNS. 

Constituting the First Ashtaka, or Book of the Rig- Veda ; the oldef<t 
authority for the religious and social institution of the Hindus. Translated 
from the Original Sanskrit. By the late H. H. Wilson, M.A., F.R.S., 
etc. etc. etc. Second Edition, with a Postscript hy Dr Fitzedward Hall. 

The first volume of the late Professor Wilson's translation of the Rig- 
Veda having become very rare, the Publishers were induced to publish a 
second edition, printed under the editorial supervision of Dr Hall. Be- 
yond the correction of oversights in quoting, translating, and press-readiaig, 
the amending and considerably amplifying of the ' Index of Names,' yery 
little has been attempted by the editor in this new edition. It is hoped 
that this volume, containing Wilson's celebrated introduction to the 
Rig- Veda, not now accessible in any other shape, will prove acceptable to 
scholars in Europe and India. It may be bought separately or together 
with the second, third, and fourth volumes, which arc still in print. The 
fifth volume, under the editorial care of Professor Co well, is in the press, 
and will shortly appear. 



Works PtMished by Triihner ^ Co., 60, Paternoster Row, London. 



In 8 Tols., 8yo. 

THE SACRED HYMNS OF THE BRAHMINS 

AS PRESEBVED TO US IN THE OLDEST COLLECTION OF RELIGIOUS POETRY, 

THE RIG-VEDA-SANHITA, 

TRANSLATED AND EXPLAINED, 

By Max Muller, M.A., Taylorian Professor of Modern Europea 
Languages in the University of Oxford ; Fellow of All Souls College. 
(Vol. 1. is in the Press.) 

Now ready, in 1 voL, Svo, pp. xxxvi. and 388, with numerous full-page 

illustrations, price 21«. 

THE SACRED CITY OF THE HINDUS : 

AN ACCOUNT OF BENAEES IN ANCIENT AND HODEBN TIMES. 

By the Rev. M. A. Sherring, M.A., LL.D. 

And prefaced with an Introduction by Fitzedward Hall, Esq., D.C.L. 



In 1 vol., 8vo, half-bound. 
A COLLECTION OF SOME OF THE 

MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS ON ORIENTAL 

SUBJECTS, 

Published on various occasions. 

By Edward Thomas, Esq., late of the East India Company's Bengal 

Civil Service. 

Contents. — On Ancient Indian "Wei^ts — The Earliest Indian Coinage — 
Bactrian Coins — On the Identity of Xandrames and Krananda — Note on 
Indian Numerals— On the Coins of the Gupta Dynasty— Early Armenian 
Coins— Observations Introductory to the Explanation of the Oriental 
Legends to be found on certain Imperial and Partho-Persian Coins — 
Sassanian Gems and early Armenian Coins — Notes on certain unpub- 
lished Coins of the SassanidsB — An account of Eight Kiific Coins— Sup- 
plementary Contributions to the Series of the Coins of the Kings of 
Ghazni — Supplementary Contributions to the Series of the Coins of the 
Patau Sultans of Hindustan — The Initial Coinage of Bengal, introduced 
by the Muhammadans on the conquest of the country, a.h. 600 — 800, 
A.D. 1203—1397. 

Very few Copies only of this Collection remain unsold. 

Now ready, in 1 vol., 8vo, pp. 148, Illustrated, price Is. 6d. 

EARLY SASSANIAN INSCRIPTIONS, 
SEALS AND COINS, 

Illustrating the Early History of the Sassanian Dynasty. 

Containing Proclamations of Ardeshir Babek, Sapor I., and his Success- 
ors. With a Critical Examination and Explanation of the Celebrated 
Inscription in the Hajfabad Cave, demonstrating that Sapor, the Conqueror 
of Valerian, was a Professing Christian. By Edward Thomas, Esq. 



N. TRUBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 



THE 



TRAVELS OF A HINDOO. 



VOL. I. 



THE 



TRAVELS OF A HINDOO 



TO VABIOUS PARTS OP 



BENGAL AND UPPER INDIA. 



BY 

BHOLANAUTH CHUNDER, 

MEMBEB OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BT 

J. TALBOYS WHEELER, ESQ., 

AUTHOK OF A 'HISTOBT OF I5DIA.' 



IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. I. 




Jk 



LONDON: 

N. TEtJBNEE & CO., 60, PATEENOSTEE EOW. 

1869. 

iAll rights reserved.^ 



J203.J'- 2p6 



JOHN OIIII.DS AXn Sl'iX, PBINTERS. 



TO HIS EXCELLENCY 

SIE JOHN LAIED MAIR LAWRENCE, BARONET, 

G.C.B., G.C.S.L, 
VICBKOY AND GOYERNOB-GENEBAL OP INDU, 

BTO^ XTC. 

Sib, 

YouB Excellency has been pleased to permit 

me to present the * Travels of a Hindoo ' to the public under 
the auspices of your Excellency's name. 

I have endeavoured in this work to give the impressions 
produced by a journey from Calcutta, as far as Delhi, upon the 
mind of one who is indebted for his education to the paternal 
government of the British in India ; and to whom can I with 
more propriety inscribe the humble fruits of that education than 
to the illustrious statesman who presides at the head of that 
government, and from whose eminent talents and wisdom the 
country has reaped many signal benefits ? That the ascendancy 
of British rule may long subsist in India to improve the con- 
dition of its population, and that your Excellency may long 
continue to exercise an influence over their welfare and happiness, 
is the earnest prayer of. 

Sir, 

Tour Excellency's 

Most obedient and most humble servant, 

BHOLANAUTH CHUNDER. 



CONTENTS OF VOL L 



A TRIP UP THE HOOGHLY. 

CHAPTER I. 

Preliminary remarks. — ^The date of the earliest trip. — Chitpore. 
— Legend of Chitraswari. — Cossipore. — Burranagur. — Duc- 
kinasore. — Balli. — Penhatty. — Sumaj of Raghub Pundit. 
— ^Khurdah. — ^Tbe Gossains. — Mahesh. — Serampore. — Bar- 
rackpore. — ^The Hiadoo Lady of Job Chamock. — Ghiretty. — 
Cbandemagore. — The French Revolution there. — Chin surah. 
— Hooghly. — ^The annihilation of the Portuguese power in 
Bengal. — Satgaon. — Triveni. — Doomurdah. — The robber - 
chief Issur Baboo. — Sooksagur. — Chagdah. — Goopteeparah. 
— Santipoor. — ^Kulna. — ^Nuddea. — ^Traditions of its origin. 
— Its celebrity as a place of learning. — History of Choitunya. 
— ^Present state of the Brahmins of Nuddea. — A Gymnoso- 
phist. — Jahn-nugger. — Brahmaditala. — Snake-charmers and 
snake-players. — ^Krishnugger. — ^Anecdote of convict labour. 
— Rajah Krishna Chunder Roy. — ^The poet Bharut Chunder. — 
Agradweep. — Cutwa. — Choitunya's adoption of Dundee- 
ism, — Clive and the guardian angel of Britain. — Plassey. — 
The river Adjai. — Bisramtullah. — Soopoor. — Rajah Surath. — 
The vagabond Sunny assi. — Eenduli, the birth-place of Joy- 
deva. — ^Doobrajpoor. — Hot wells of Bukkesur.— Soory. — ^The 
old woman of eighty-six. — Cynthia. — Jammo-Kundee — Fes- 
tival of Ras-jatra. — Berhampore. — ^The Irish Raja of Hurri- 
anah. — Kasimbazar. — Moorshedabad, as it was and as it is. — 
The new palace of the Nabob Nazim. — His Zenana. — Jungi- 
pore. — Sooty. — ^The ruins of Gour . . . . page 1 

CHAPTER IL 

Rajraahal. — ^The Mootee-Jhuma waterfall. — Secreegully — ^The 
Terriagurry Pass. — Peer-Pointee . — Col gong. — Bhagulpore. — 
Cleveland's monuments. — Mount Mandar. — ^The rock of Jan- 
geerah. — Sultangung. — ^The ancient Buddhist Vihara, or mon- 



viii Contents. 



astery. — Jumalpore tunnel. — Hot springs of Seetakoond. — 
Monghyr, — Ancient Palibothra and modern Patna. — Banki- 
pore. — ^The sacred Peepul tree of Buddha. — Horihar-Chetra 
Mela and Sonepore Eacesi — Dinapore. — ^The Soane Bridge. — 
Arrah. — Cbuprah, — Gbazipore. — Lord Cornwallis's tomb. — 
Ohunar. — Trimbukjee Danglia, the ex-minister of Baja 
Row. — ^Tbe Almighty's seat at Chunar. — ^Mirzapore. — The 
temple of Bindacbul ...... 95 

A TOUR TO THE NORTH-WEST. 

CHAPTER III. 

Introductory remarks. — Railway in India. — Pundooa tower. — 
Battle of the Cow. — The ghost of a bovine Bhuggobuttee. — 
The iron rod, or Shah Sufi's walking-stick. — Peer-pukur and 
Fatikhan, or the tame alligator. — Boinchi. — ^The robber in 
India. — ^The Amazon Kali. — Mamaree. — Burdwan. — The tale 
of Biddya and Soondra. — Biddj^apotta, or the abode of Biddya. 
— The Maun-surrobur, or Raja Maun's tank. — The Mushan^ 
or the place of Soondra's execution. — The Nabobhaut. — 
Shere Afkun's tomb. — ^The old Rajbaree. — ^The Maharajah 
of Burdwan. — Kristoshair and female swimmers. — ^The Dilk- 
hoosa-baug. — ^The menagerie and its lions. — The future of 
Hindoo shrines and temples ..... 139 

CHAPTER IV. 

Mankur. — Paneeghur. — ^Legend of Byjnath. — Hindoo opinion 
of coals. — ^The petrified forest at Singarim. — Raneegunge. — 
Hindoo and Anglo-Saxon characteristics. — ^The future of 
Raneegunge. — Its collieries. — The Damooder. — ^The Grand 
Trunk Road. — Dawk travelling. — ^The Barakur river. — ^The 
Barakur serai. — ^Young Bengal's picture of the prospective 
of India. — ^The Santhals, an aboriginal race. — ^Their homes 
and habits. — Santhal females. — San thai polity and religion. 
— The hill-tribes of India. — Taldangah bungalow . 161 

CHAPTER V. 

Mount Parisnath. — ^Topechanchee. — The Hindoostanee proverb 
about Bengal. — Jain temple at Parisnath. — Doomree. — ^The 
desolation of the hill-regions. — The man carried by a tiger. 



Contents, ix 



— A gentlemaD's encounter with a bear. — ^Tlie break-down 
of a dawk-gharry. — Burhee. — Dunwah Pass. — Barrak-serai. 
— ^The sick child. — Legend of the Fulgoo river. — Shergotty. 
— ^The Vi8hnu}md at Gaya. — Perpetual widowership of the 
Gayalese. — Antiquities of Oomga. — ^The legend of the Ner- 
budda and Soane. — Deyree. — Rotasgurh. — Koer Sing and 
Uminer Sing. — The Gossain-talao. — Sasserara. — Haseyn 
Khan's tomb. — ^The tomb of Shere Shah. — Legend of the 
Caramnassa river. — ^Rajah Trisanku and Young Bengal 202 

CHAPTER VI. 

Benares. — ^Its situation upon the Trident of Shiva and exemp- 
tion from earthquakes. — ^Legend of Vyas-Kasi interpreted. 
— Hindoo characteristics of Benares. — The great antiquity, 
and description of that city in a Tamul drama. — The many 
changes in its site, and the origin of its present name. — ^Its 
modern features. — ^The fort of Benares. — ^The Rajghaut. — 
Khottah architecture. — ^The idols and temples. — Various sect- 
arian influences at various times. — Bheloopoor, the birth-place 
of Parisnath. — ^The Ranee Dowager of Vizianagram. — Ghaut- 
scenes at Benares. — ^Teelabhandessur, and his history. — ^The 
legend of Munikurnika-ghaut. — ^The observatory. — Madoo-rai- 
ke-dharara, or the mosque of Aurungzebe. — Ramnugger. — 
The temple of Biseswara. — ^The Gyan-Bapi. — ^The temple of 
Unna Poorna. — Sunnyassees and Bhoyrubbees. — Sameness of 
sight-seeing in Benares. — ^The Chouk. — ^The Benares college. 
— Comparison of Sanscrit and English. — Summing up of the 
account of Benares. — Secrole. — Church Mission School. — 
Warren Hastings at Benares in 1781, and the Englishman there 
in 1860. — A Mofussil magistrate and a Calcutta attorney. — 
The English burial-ground at Secrole. — ^The mutiny at Ben- 
ares. — The Bengalee-tola, or the quarter of the Bengalees. — 
Sarnath. — The Buddhist temple of Dhamek. — Choukandi, or 
Luri-ka-kodan. — Description of Benares in theKasi-khund. — 
Destruction of Sarnath ...... 236 

CHAPTER VII. 

Allahabad. — The Ganges and Jumna. — Shaving operation at 
their confluence. — The Allahabad mela. — Antiquity of the 
city. — Ancient Hindoo Republic at Allahabad. — Legend of 
the Seraswattee river. — ^I'he Allahabad fort. — ^The transmi- 



Contents. 



gration of Akber from a Hindoo Brahmin to a Mahomedan 
emperor. — Importance of Allahabad during the mutiny. — 
Patalpooree, or the subterranean temple. — Bheema's Gada or 
Lat.^-Jehangeer and his Marwaree Begum. — ^Martial law at 
Allahabad. — Stories of the mutiny, — Hindoostanee peasant- 
women. — ^The Duria-ghaut. — Bhradwaj Muni's hermitage. — 
The Chusero Bagh. — ^The rebel Moulivie and his well. — 
Battle of the Shoes. — ^The future of Allahabad. — The valley 
of the Doab. — Berhampore. — Futtehpore. — Cawnpore, past 
and present. — Shah Behari Lai's ghaut. — Nana and his 
council. — Miss Wheeler. — The House of Massacre. — lutrench- 
ments of General Wheeler. — Suttee-Chowra-ghaut. — Ancient 
Khetryas and modern Sepoys. — The Ganges canal. — The 
visionary attorney. — Idolatry in Hindoostan and Bengal. — 
Chowbeypore. — Mera-ka-serai. — Kanouge. — Buddha's tooth 
there in former times. — ^The ancient Hindoo citadel. — ^The 
Rang-Mahal. — Hindoo and Mahomedan accounts of Kanouge 
criticized. — ^The Grand Trunk Road in the Doab. — The drought 
of 1860. — The famine of 1861. — Mutiny-ruins along the road. 
— A mango tope. — Mynporee. — Shecoabad. — The Hindoo- 
stance and Bengalee compared. — Former insecurity and pre- 
sent security of travelling in the Doab. — European fugitives 
during the mutiny. — Ferozabad. — Field of the wreck of 
Hindoo independence. — Approach to Agra . . 301 

CHAPTER VIII. 

First view of Agra. — A Jumna sandbank. — Feizi. — The Gool- 
fushun and Charbagh of Baber. — The Etmad-ud-Dowla. — 
Fort of Agra. — Darean Darwaza, or Gate of Sights. — The 
Lallah host. — Young Hindoostan's parlour. — Excursion to 
the fort. — Umra Sing Ka fatuck. — Dewani-khas. — Sheesha 
Mahl, or Hall of Mirrors. — Akber's harem. — M.ogu\fancy fairs. 
— The Phanseghur. — Dewanni-aum. — Mootee Musjeed. — 
Shah Jehan's bath. — Jehangeer's drinking-cup. — Great gun 
of Agra. — The Taj. — Its story. — Its architect. — Commemor- 
ative poems. — The public works of the Hindoos, the Maho- 
medans, and the English in India. — Taj gardens. — Antiquity 

[ of Agra. — Description of, by Jehangeer. — ^The Agra of 1860. 
— Its Chowk. — ^Varieties of its population. — Peculiarities of 
the Hindoostanees. — The Agra college. — Memorials of British 
rule at Agra. — Hindoostanee opinion of the Income Tax 382 



INTRODUCTION. 



The * Travels of a Hindoo,' by Baboo Bholanautb Chunder, 
which are now for the first time published in Europe, will 
be found on perusal to be among the most remarkable, and 
certainly among the most original, works which have hitherto 
appeared in connection with India. These Travels originally 
appeared from week to week in a Calcutta periodical entitled 
the * Saturday Evening Englishman,' and in that shape they 
soon attracted public attention. That the author was a 
Hindoo seemed scarcely open to question. His thoughts 
and expressions respecting family and social life were 
evidently moulded by a Hindoo training ; whilst his observ- 
ations and opinions, especially as regards places of pilgrim- 
age and other matters connected with religion, were 
eminently Hindoo. At the same time, however, his thorough 
mastery of the English language, and his wonderful fami- 
liarity with English ideas and turns of thought, which could 
only have been obtained by an extensive course of English 
reading, appear to have led some to suspect that after all the 
real knight-errant might prove to be a European in the dis- 
guise of a Hindoo. 

The present writer has been requested by Baboo 
Bholanauth Chunder to introduce his Travels to the English 
public ; and accordingly considers it desirable in the first 
place to assure the reader that the Baboo is a veritable 

VOL. I. b 



xii Introduction, 



Hindoo, and the author of the entire work. The writer of 
this introduction has not added or altered a single line or 
word ; and is given to understand that the Baboo has 
derived no literary assistance whatever from any one, 
whether Native or European. The Baboo has given his 
solemn assurance that he is the sole author of the narrative 
of his travels, and there is no reason whatever for doubting 
his words. Indeed, he has displayed in personal intercourse 
an amount of observation and thoughtfulness fully equal to 
that which characterizes the story of his sojournings. The 
value of the accompanying volumes is thus abundantly 
manifest. The Travels of the Baboo in India are not the 
sketchy production of a European traveller, but the genuine 
honafide work of a Hindoo wanderer, who has made his way 
from Calcutta to the Upper Provinces, and looked upon every 
scene with Hindoo eyes, and indulged in trains of thought 
and association which only find expression in Native society, 
and are wholly foreign to European ideas. European readers 
must be generally aware of the limited character and scope 
of the information which is to be obtained from the ordinary 
run of European travellers in India ; the descriptions, often 
very graphic, of external life ; the appreciation of the 
picturesque in external nature; the perception of the 
ludicrous in Native habits, manners, and sentiments ; and a 
moral shrug of the shoulders at all that is strange, unintelli- 
gible, or idolatrous : — all, however, combined with an utter 
want of real sympathy with the people, or close and familiar 
acquaintance with their thoughts and ways. Now, however, 
with the assistance of these * Travels,' Englishmen will be 
enabled, for the first time in English literature, to take a 
survey of India with the eyes of a Hindoo; to go on 
pilgrimages to holy places in the company of a guide who is 
neither superstitious nor profane, but a fair type of the 
enlightened class of English-educated Bengalee gentlemen. 



Introduction, xiii 



Our. traveller perhaps does not tell us all he knows. Pro- 
hahly, like the candid old father of history, he has been 
fearful of meddling too much with divine things, lest h 
should thereby incur the anger of the gods. But so far as 
he delineates pictures of Indian life and manners, and 
familiarizes his readers with the peculiar tone of Hindoo 
thought and sentiment, his Travels are far superior to those 
of any writer with which we have hitherto become acquainted. 
Even the observant old travellers of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries, who went peeping and prying every- 
where, mingling freely with Natives, and living like Natives, 
never furnished a tithe of the stock of local traditions, 
gossiping stories, and exhaustive descriptions which are here 
presented to English and Indian readers. 

Here it may be advisable to furnish a brief sketch of the 
author, and to describe the circumstances under which his 
travels were undertaken. In so doing free use will be made 
of such personal particulars as he himself thought proper to 
supply, in addition to such details as could be obtained from 
more general sources of information. Indeed, upon these 
points it will be advisable under the circumstances to enlarge 
more considerably than would otherwise be necessary ; for 
unless the reader is familiarized with the particular religious 
ideas of the traveller, he will fail to take that interest in the 
Travels which they are well calculated to excite. 
• • * Baboo Bholanauth Chunder is at present a man of 
about forty years of age. He is by birth a Bengalee, and 
an inhabitant of Calcutta. He belongs to the class of 
Bunniahs, a caste of Hindoo traders, who hold the same 
rank as that of the ancient Vaistas, or merchants, in the 
caste system of Maun, which comprises Brahmans, or 
priests ; Kshateitas, or soldiers ; Vaistas, or merchants, 
and SuDRAS, or servile cultivators. A history of the 
Bunniahs of Bengal would present many points of interest, 



xiv Introduction. 



even to European readers, and would prove an important 
addition to the history of the civilization of the human race. 
In the tenth century of the Christian era an attempt is said 
to have been made by the famous £AJa of Bullala, in the 
ancient Bengal metropolis at Gour, to degrade the class of 
Bunniahs, probably from differences of religious opinion and 
sectarian feelings, of which, however, nothing whatever is 
known beyond the bare tradition of the fact. It is curious 
also to note that the Bunniahs have ceased to wear the 
sacrificial thread, that ancient and significant emblem which 
is worn in three strings, and which separates the three 
twice-born castes of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas from 
the caste of Sudras. The result has been that whilst the 
Bunniahs of Bengal have evidently sprung from the same 
common origin as the Bunniahs of Hindoostan and Guzerat, 
there is no relationship or social intercourse existing between 
the two. Geographical separation, and differences of habits, 
local usages, and religious opinions, have perhaps tended in 
a great measure to render them aliens towards each other ; 
and indeed there is as little sympathy and recognition of 
consanguinity between the Bunniahs of Bengal and those 
of Hindoostan, as there is between the Brahmans of the two 
countries. But the great mark of distinction is the sacrificial 
thread, which is still worn by the Bunniahs of Upper and 
Western India, but has been denied to the Bunniahs of 
j^engal ; and there can be no doubt that in by-gone genera- 
tions some heart-burning was felt in Bengal on account of 
this thread. Very recently a Bunniah raillionnaire of Calcutta 
attempted to revive the practice of wearing it ; but in this 
age of religious indifference and apathy, the movement met 
Avith little response. During the present generation the 
sacrificial threads of the old Hindoo legislator have fallen 
very considerably in the public esteem, and they are thrown 



Introduction. xv 



off altogether by that sect of monotheistic reformers who are 
known as the members of the Brahmo Somaj. 

Notwithstanding, however, the attempt of the Eaja of 
Bullala to lower the Bunniahs in national esteem, their 
opulence and enterprise have always maintained the respect- 
ability and dignity of the class ; and a mercantile aristocracy 
has arisen among them, which has held the purse-strings of 
the nation, and of whom the rich family of the Mullieks of 
the present day are a favourable example. Many of the 
Bunniahs may be traced as having gradually migrated in 
by-gone generations from Gour through Moorshedabad, 
Beerbhoom, and Burdwan, and finally settled at Satgong, 
in the district of Hooghly. It is this latter class of adven- 
turous Bunniahs who chiefly carried on mercantile transac- 
tions in the sixteenth century with the Portuguese of 
Hooghly ; and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
with the Dutch of Chinsurah, the French of Chandernagore, 
and the English of Calcutta. Erom this circumstance it is 
said that the Bunniahs first imbibed a tincture of European 
refinement and delicacy towards females, which until late 
years was little appreciated by the rest of their countrymen. 

Our traveller, Baboo Bholanauth Chunder, was naturally 
bred in the hereditary creed of his parents, who were 
Vaishnavas, or worshippers of Vishnu. This deity is ge- 
nerally worshipped through the medium of incarnations, of 
whom Eama and Krishna are the most famous ; but 
Krishna is worshipped by Bunniahs generally as the incarn- 
ation of Vishnu. Here it should be remarked that the 
god Vishnu is to the mind of his Hindoo worshippers the 
one Supreme Being, who created all things and exists in 
all things. According to a widely -spread belief, Vishnu be- 
came incarnate in succession in the two heroes, Rama and 
Krishna, for the purpose of delivering the human race from 



xvi Introduction, 



the oppressions of the Rakshavas, or demons; in other 
words, to drive out the Buddhist hierarchy, and re-establish 
the Brahmanical system in India.* From some cause or 
other the worship of Vishnu declined in Bengal; but it 
was modified and revived in the fifteenth century by a 
celebrated religious teacher named Choitunya. This eminent 
personage succeeded in reforming many religious and social 
abuses, and founded a sect of all classes without any dis- 
tinction of caste ; and in so doing continued the great work 
which was commenced by Joydeva about a century pre- 
viously. The Bunniahs of Bengal chiefly belong to the 
sect of Choitunya, and acknowledge him as an incarnation 
of Krishna, without however adopting any of those ascetic 
habits which distinguish many of the Vaishnavas. The lay 
followers of Choitunya are merely initiated in the mantra, 
or invocation to deity, by their religious preceptors, who 
are called Gossains. These Gossains are descendants of 
Nityanunda, the coadjutor of Choitunya; and it was to 
this Nityanunda that Choitunya intrusted the task of 
spreading his religion, after his retirement from his spiritual 
labours. Up to the last generation these Gossains were held 
in great veneration; but in the present day they receive 
little respect excepting from Hindoo females, who must be 
regarded as the main preservers of superstitious ideas and 
usages amongst the more enlightened Hindoo community. 
The Gossains are otherwise called Gooroos, and as such are 
hereditary preceptors in a family. In the case of Bholanauth 
Chunder, the family of the old family Gooroo became al- 
together extinct, and no other Gooroo was selected, so that 
to this day the Baboo is vrithout initiation. The Gossains 

* For the proof of the ahove statements, the writer may be per- 
mitted to refer to his History of India passim. Vishnu has, in fact, 
appeared in nine incarnations, and there is a tenth yet to come • but 
the two specified in the text are the most important. 



Introduction, xvii 



of Bengal are regarded as of divine origin, but thej are not 
actually worshipped like those of Bombay and Guzerat, who 
are known as Marajas. The utmost respect that is paid to 
the Bengalee Gossains by their followers consists in taking 
and kissing the dust of their feet, but the younger females 
are not permitted to appear before them, and no scandals 
have arisen in the community like those which some years 
back obtained such unhappy notoriety in the Western 
Presidency. Whilst, however, Baboo Bholanauth Chunder, 
and the Bunniahs generally, are the sectarian worshippers 
of Vishnu in his incarnation as Krishna, they are Hindoos in 
every respect, and consequently as a sect, though not perhaps 
always as individuals, they believe in all the gods of the Hin- 
doo Pantheon. Indeed, the lay members of the Vaishnava 
sect adore also Siva and Doorga, as representatives of deity, 
quite as much as the lay members of the Saiva and Sakto 
sects, who worship Siva and Doorga, pay their adorations to 
Krishna. Bholanauth Chunder complains, and with some 
show of reason, that it is common to tax young Bengal with 
the want of any religion, and with showing no active hatred 
of that idolatry which his education has taught him to 
despise and disbelieve. But Bholanauth Chunder asserts 
that this charge is contradicted by the movement that has 
been for some time in operation amongst educated natives, 
in favour of that monotheistic worship of spiritual deity 
known as Brahmoism, and by the fact that many enlightened 
Bengalees cherished a strong faith in that Deism which be- 
lieves in the existence of God, but refuses to believe in any 
of the trammels or forms which are superstitiously regarded 
as a part of the religion. This is not the place for theological 
controversy. The present writer is simply desirous of 
explaining to European readers the religious ideas which 
are entertained by that class of Bengalees of whom our 
traveller is a type. Accordingly it will suffice to state that 



xviii Introduction, 



Baboo Bholanautb Ohunder is one of those Deists who be- 
lieve in God, but who disbelieve in rites and forms ; and 
who adore the Supreme Being, and simply recognize all the 
national gods of the Hindoos as the traditional deities of 
their forefathers. It might also be remarked as a significant 
fact connected with the social history of the Hindoos, that 
under the Mussulman rule the public worship of idols was 
generally suppressed; for wealth and idolatry were alike 
concealed from the eyes of the tyrannical and grasping 
Nabobs. Under the tolerant rule of the late Company the 
natives of Bengal displayed their wealth and brought out 
their idols without fear ; and as they acquired new fortunes, 
60 they added to the number of the idols in their households. 
In later times however wealth has been more generally dif- 
fused, and is obtained by steady industry rather than by 
lucky speculations, and consequently idolatry is going out 
of fashion, as it is popularly believed that fortunes are no 
longer to be obtained by propitiating the gods. Some ten 
or fifteen years ago at least five thousand images of Doorga 
were annually made iu Calcutta for the celebration of the 
Doorga festival ; but in the present year scarcely a thousand 
have been made in all Calcutta; and it was especially 
remarked that there was a great falling off in 1866, which 
was the memorable year of the famine. 

Turning, however, to the individual subject before us, it 
may be remarked that the Baboo is thoroughly in earnest 
in his desire to extend his own views as regards religion 
and religious worsliip amongst his fellow-countrymen. In 
the present day, whilst superstitious ideas have begun to die 
out of the land, the number of pilgrims to sacred places and 
shrines has largely increased ; as all the wealthier classes^ 
and especially the females, avail themselves very considerably 
of the safe and speedy mode of travelling by the Eail, as an 
easy means for going on pilgrimage to Benares and Brindabun, 



Introduction. xix 



for the purpose of washing away their sins in a holy river. 
Accordingly the Baboo has made it his object in the follow- 
ing pages to interpret the various national legends and local 
traditions of the places he has visited, in such a way as to 
disabuse the minds of Native readers of the superstitious 
ideas which are at present connected with many of the 
localities. It is true that the narrative of his travels was also 
mainly intended for those who could read English ; but the 
author contemplates publishing a translation in Bengalee 
for the special purpose above indicated. 

The proficiency of Baboo Bholanauth Ch under in the 
English language has already been noticed ; and it should 
now be remarked that he is deeply indebted for this pro- 
ficiency to a distinguished poet and essayist, who was widely 
known in India twenty and thirty years ago under the 
initials of D. L. R. The productions of this gentleman were 
honoured with the praise of Macaulay, and his memory is 
still cherished by his pupils, although it has almost passed 
away from the present generation of Anglo-Indians. Captain 
David Lester Richardson held the post of Principal of the 
Hindoo College at Calcutta, and taught English literature 
to the two upper classes. At this institution Bholanauth 
Chunder received tuition for several 'years, and at that time 
it occupied the first place in the field of Native education. 
Indeed, it was the Hindoo College that first sent out those 
educated Natives, who became distinguished from their 
orthodox countrymen by the designation of Young Bengal. 

Baboo Bholanauth Chunder was naturally familiar from 
his early years with several places on the river Hooghly in 
the neighbourhood of Calcutta, such as Penhatty, Khurdah, 
and Mahesh, which are remarkable for many religious 
reminiscences connected with the worship of Vishnu, and at 
which the most reputed Gossains have taken up their 
residence. The annual fairs and festivals which are held in 



XX Introduction. 



those places are frequented by multitudes of people from 
Calcutta and its neighbourhood ; and during his boyhood our 
traveller frequently visited those spots, and shared in the 
mingling of amusement with religious worship which is 
always to be found on such occasions. At a later 
period his journeys extended to Serampore and Chinsurah, 
which in those days could only be reached by boats, but 
which are now within an easy distance by rail. Here it 
should be remarked that thirty years ago the strongest 
possible prejudice against travelling existed in the minds 
of the Bengalees ; and to this day there are many 
families who have never been able to overcome this aversion. 
An old Bengalee proverb was universally accepted, that he 
was the happiest man who never owed a debt nor under- 
took a journey. It was only the old men and old 
widows who left their homes to go on pilgrimages to 
Benares and Brindabun; Benares being the sacred city 
to the worshippers of Siva, and Brindabun the sacred 
locality to the worshippers of Vishnu in his incarnation as 
Krishna. These ancient pilgrims never set out without first 
making their wills ; and their return home was scarcely ever 
expected by their families. Under such circumstances a 
young Bengalee was rarely allowed to leave the parental 
roof; and a little voyage up the river to Chinsurah or 
Hooghly was often a matter of boast, and the hero of the 
journey was regarded by his associates as an adventurous 
traveller. The Baboo, however, had made the history of 
India his favourite study, and soon became imbued with a 
strong desire to visit the localities which were famous in the 
national traditions. Moreover, on leaving school he had 
chosen the hereditary profession of his caste; and accordingly 
often found it necessary to visit many parts of Bengal to 
institute inquiries respecting the country produce in which he 
traded. The first important trip which he undertook was in 



Introduction. xxi 



1843 to the once famous town of Dacca, wbicli in the days 
of our grandmofchers manufactured the celebrated muslin 
dresses, each of which was of so fine a texture that it could be 
drawn through a wedding-ring. Of course our young 
traveller was not at that period above the superstitions of 
his countrymen ; and indeed never does a Hindoo take any 
step of importance without first consulting the stars. This 
is usually done by reference either to a Brahman astrologer, 
or to the astrological almanack. When business will not 
admit of delay, a Hindoo will consult either the Sivagyanmut, 
or * advices of Siva,' or the buchuns, or * sayings,' of Khona, 
the wife of Varahamira, the great astronomer who was one 
of the nine gems in the court of Vikramaditya, the great 
monarch of Malwa, whose era of fifty-seven years before 
Christ is still in constant use throughout Hindoostan. Be- 
fore, however, starting on his trip to Dacca, Baboo 
Bholanauth Chunder had not only to fix upon an auspicious 
day, but also to perform certain ceremonies which are 
necessary on such occasions. These ceremonies generally 
consist in bowing to the elders of the family, males and 
females, with the head down to the ground, in which atti- 
tude their benedictions are received. The intending traveller 
then carries a leaf of the bale-tree which has been taken out 
of a brass pot full of Ganges water, and marches out of the 
house without looking backwards. All these rites being 
performed, the Baboo started on his first trip, which lasted 
only a month, and of which the results are comparatively 
unimportant, and do not appear in the present narrative of 
travels. 

The journeys described in the present volumes were un- 
dertaken at intervals between 1845 and 1866, some being 
for purposes of trade, and others for amusement and in- 
formation. In the first instance the Baboo relates the story 
of a trip up the river Hooghly, in which he describes the 



xxii Introduction. 



principal places on the banks of the river, commencing from 
Chitpore to Nuddea, and thence from Kishnaghur to Cutwah, 
and the district of Beerbhoom, where he saw the tomb of 
Joydeva. Few Europeans probably are familiar with- the 
name of Joydeva ; and yet this man, like Choitunya, will 
hold a prominent place in some future history of India 
as an enthusiast and a reformer, who has left a lasting im- 
press in Bengal. He too spiritualized the worship of 
Krishna, and denounced the caste system. One of his 
most celebrated poems was translated at full length by Sir 
William Jones, and is buried in one of the earlier volumes 
of the Journal of the Asiatic Society ; and though it 
abounds with that Oriental imagery and passion which seem 
to have characterized the most popular Eastern bards from 
time immemorial, it contains some undoubted beauties, and 
throws a new light upon some important phases of religious 
development. From the tomb of this important person our 
Hindoo traveller proceeded to Moorshedabad, the capital 
of the former Nawaubs of Bengal, of which he has given a 
full account ; and he has also furnished interesting descrip- 
tions, of Gour,Rajmahal, Bhagulpore, Sultangunj, Monghyr, 
Patna, Ghazeepore, Chunar, and Mirzapore, interlarded with 
local traditions, many of which are of undoubted value, whilst 
many, we believe, are not to be found in any other European 
publication. Having finished these preliminary trips, the 
Baboo entered upon a tour through the North- Western 
Provinces about the year 1860, when the memory of the 
Mutiny was still fresh in the minds of the people, and before 
the railway could carry its crowds of passengers through the 
whole extent of Hindoostan. He proceeded from Raneegunj 
by the Grand Trunk Eoad, and visited Pariswath, Sasseeram, 
Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Agra,Muttra, and Brindabun. 
His description of Brindabun, the great centre of the 
worship of Krishna, forms one of the most interesting and 



Introduction. xxiii 



valuable portions of the entire work ; and if the eye of the 
pilgrim sometimes wandered &om the sacred temples to the 
fairer portion of the worshippers, his remarks only add a 
human interest to scenes, which, after all, are somewhat 
strange and unintelligible to European minds. In 1866 he 
paid a second visit to Delhi, and his antiquarian notices of 
that city and its ancient suburbs display an amount of in- 
vestigation and research which are highly creditable to the 
writer, and his results are worthy of far more notice than 
can be awarded them in the present Introduction. 

As regards the narrative generally, the Baboo has evi- 
dently endeavoured to combine all such legendary and 
positive history of the places he visited as would prove 
interesting to readers and travellers. He has presented 
pictures of varied scenes in the light and colouring in which 
they appeared before his own eyes ; and has diversified the 
details of his information by references to local traditions, 
objects of antiquarian interest, social and religious institu- 
tions, and the manners, customs, and thoughts of his 
countrymen. In a word, whilst he has dwelt upon scenes 
and objects with the view of affording materials for Indian 
history, he has portrayed Hindoo life as it meets the eye 
in the present day. 

Indeed, a journey up the valley of the Ganges and 
Jumna from Calcutta to Delhi is unequalled in objects of 
human interest by any other journey in the world. From 
Calcutta, the city of palaces, the finest European city in the 
Eastern hemisphere, and where European civilization reigns 
supreme, the Oriental pilgrim is carried perhaps in the first 
instance to Benares, the city beloved by the gods, with its 
mass of temples, ghats, and dwelling-houses, crowding the 
banks of the holy stream for a distance of some miles. The 
narrow busy streets with pagodas on all sides ; the gay 
bazars teeming with Native manufactures ; the mysterious 



xxiv Introduction. 



temples with sacred bulls stabled in the holy precincts ; the 
thousands and thousands of people washing away their sins 
in the Ganges ; the idols, flowers, sprinklings with waters, 
readings of sacred books, prayers of Brahmans, clamouring 
of beggars for alms, and tokens of religious worship in all 
directions ; — all tend to wean away the mind from European 
ideas, and impress it with a deep sense of ignorance as re- 
gards the yearnings and aspirations of millions of fellow- 
creatures. From Benares again the traveller may be carried 
to Allahabad, where the holy rivers of Jumna and Ganges 
are united in a single stream ; and the religious mind of the 
Hindoo is filled with a deep reverential awe at the mingling 
of the waters, which has its source in a fetische worship 
which is as old as the hills, and flourished in patriarchal 
times. This religious feeling finds expression in a great 
festival which is held at the junction of the rivers ; and the 
European is distracted by the thousand and one nondescript 
scenes which meet the eye at a Hindoo fair ; the jumbling 
up of the pilgrimages of the Middle Ages mth the civiliza- 
tion of the nineteenth century; the conjurors, jugglers, 
faqueers, women and children in countless numbers ; the 
hundreds of vehicles, the endless stalls, idols, and lucifer 
matches, books and sweetmeats, brass pots, gilt caps, cedar 
pencils, toys, note paper, marbles, red powder, and waving 
flags. From thence the traveller may be conducted to 
Agra and Delhi, from the centres of Hindooism to the 
centres of Islam in India. The marble palaces with graceful 
arches, slender columns, and screens like lace-work. The 
magnificent Taj with its dome of white marble, and its ex- 
quisite interior inlaid with flowers and birds in coloured 
gems, which, in the language of Heber, seems to have been 
built by giants and finished by jewellers. Above all there 
are the wondrous mosques, decorated with holy texts from 
the Koran; the cloistered gardens in vast quadran^^les 



Introduction, xxv 



where fountains are ever playing ; and the marble tombs to 
which streams of pious Mussulmans are ever going on pil- 
grimage to scatter a few flowers upon the sacred shrines, 
and to offer up prayers to the prophet of Islam. But there 
is no space here to dwell longer upon the scenes which our 
Hindoo traveller has described so well ; and with this brief 
Introduction of himself and his Travels, we leave him to tell 
his own story, assuring the European reader that, notwith- 
standing the novelty of the names and scenes, it will well 
repay a careful perusal. 

J. TALBOYS WHEELEE. 



Calcutta, 9th September, 1868. 



TEAYELS OF A HIiNDOO. 



CHAPTEE I. 

K any man would keep a faithful account of what he had seen and 
heard himself, it must, in whatever hands, prove an interesting 
thing. — Horace Walpole. 

From the diary kept of our several journeys, the date 
of our first and earliest trip up the Hooghly appears to 
be the 11th of February, 1845. This is now so far back 
as to seem quite in the ' olden time ' — in the days of 
the budgerow and bholio, of tow-ropes and punt-poles, 
all now things of the past, and irrevocably gone to ob- 
soletism. It being the order of the day to ' get over 
the greatest possible amount of ground in the smallest 
possible amount of time,' the reader, perhaps, trembles 
at the mention of by-gones, but let him take courage, 
and we promise not to be a bore, but let him off easily. 

In the times to which we allude, one was not so in- 
dependent of the elements as now. The hour, there- 
fore, of our embarkation was as propitious as could be 
wished. Both Neptune and ^olus seemed to look 

VOL. I. 1 



Travels of a Hindoo, 



down with complacency upon our undertaking ; — the 
one, favouring us with the tide just set in ; and the 
other, with a fresh full breeze blowing from the south. 
Thanks to their kind old godships ! But, unhappily, we 
have not to relate here the adventures of an Ulysses or 
a Sinbad. Ours is a lowly tale of matter-of-fact, drawn 
from the scenes of every-day life, and from the sights of 
everybody's familiarity. It is undertaken with no other 
motive than to give a little work to our humble * grey 
goose quill,' and is presented to the public with the 
parting exclamation of the poet, 'Would it were 
worthier.' 

It was, then, about the middle of February, 1845, that 
we set out upon our excursion. Under the auspices of 
a favourable wind and tide, our boat sharply and merrily 
cut along its way, while we stood upon its deck to de- 
scry the fading forms of the Mint and Metcalfe Hall, 
that gradually receded from the view. In less than 
twenty minutes we cleared the canal, and passed by 
Chitpore, so called from the Kali Ohitraswari of that 
village. She is one of those old images to whom many 
a human sacrifice has been offered under the regime of 
the Brahmins. It is said of her, that a party of boat- 
men was rowing up the river to the sound of a melo- 
dious strain. Heightened by the stillness of the night, 
the plaintive carol came in a rich harmony to the ears 
of the goddess. She then sat facing the east, but, turn- 
ing to hear the song of the boatmen as they passed by 
her ghalt, she had her face turned towards the river ever 
since. 



Cossipore, — Burranagur, — Ducki/iasore. — BallL 3 

Next we came to Cossipore — the enamelled village of 
the native rose and the exiled daisy, and the classic 
spot over which the muse has flung many a soft and 
sacred enchantment.* The gay villas with which it is 
studded, and the bloom and beauty of its parterres, 
reflect a picture in the calm mirror of the waters, that 
reminds us of the lines, — 

* I saw from out the wave her structures rise, 
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand.' 

From Cossipore to Burranagur. Nearly two hundred 
years ago this was an important mart of traffic belong- 
ing to the Dutch. But it was then also so much the 
resort of bad women from difierent parts of the country, 
that it was appellatized by the early English travellers 
as * the Paphos of Calcutta.' Now-a-days, it forms 
the retreat of the mercantile elite from the cares and 
vexations of the Ditch, and the merrj^ scene of native 
holiday pic-nics. The next place is Duckinasore — said, 
in days gone by, to have been the seat of a Mussulman 
prince. It is now covered by extensive gardens, gay 
with brilliant and variegated flowers, and emerald lawns 
sloping to the water's edge. 

Opposite to Duckinasore stands the village of Balli, 
This is a very old and orthodox place, mentioned in the 
Kobi Kunkun. It is doubtful, however, how Sreemunto 
could have sailed by this place, if the Ganges formerly 
held its course below Satgong — unless, in the age of the 
poet, the stream had flowed as it does in our day. Long 
had the ragged appearance of Balli, and its mud-built 

♦ In allusion to the late author of the * Literary Leaves,' who re- 
sided here for many years. 



Travels of a Hindoo, 



cottages given the lie to its great antiquity. It is noted 
for being an academy of Hindoo pundits in Lower Ben- 
gal. The creek to which it has lent its name affords a 
nice little inlet for a peep into rural life. Over that 
creek has been thrown now one of the largest and 
strongest bridges in Bengal. 

Beautiful passage ! The banks of the Hooghly, for 
miles, present the most gay and picturesque scenery. 
On either hand are gardens and orchards decked in an 
eternal verdure, and the eyes revel upon landscapes of 
the richest luxuriance. From the groves shine out the 
white villas of most tasteful and variegated architecture. 
Ghauts occur at short intervals, with their wide flights 
of steps from the banks into the water. Towns and 
villages turn up in rapid succession. Now, a wooded 
promontory stretching into the water bounds the view; 
then, a wide expanse of the river opens a most gorgeous 
vista. No part of Bengal exhibits such a high degree 
of populousness, and wealth, and civilization, as. the 
valley of the Hooghly. 

Our progress was from bank to bank, or in mid- 
stream, as the tide carried the boat. Passed Pcnhatty, 
in which is the snmaj of Raghub Pundit. He sleeps 
embowered under the shade of a madhavi tree, while the 
river flows immediately below with a soft gurgling song. 
Little downwards of Khurdah is a spot, where we 
remembered to have seen, many a time, in our early 
days, the ironed skeleton of a highwajTnan suspended 
in the air. It reminded one of the period when rob- 
beries were committed by announcements in letters and 



Kkurdah, — Mahesh, 5 

cartels to the householder — when honest burghers, fall- 
ing into the hands of dacoits, were burnt to death by the 
flames of torches, and housewives were roasted alive in 
cauldrons of boiling oil. 

Khurdah is a noted place for the residence of 
Nityanunda — the fellow-reformer of Choitunya. The 
latter retired to Nilachull, leaving his colleague at the 
head of the diocese in Bengal. Long a gad-about ascetic, 
Nityanunda at last took up his abode at Khurdah, and, 
falling in love with a Brahmin's daughter, led her to 
the hymeneal altar, and turned an honest Benedick in 
his old age. His descendants are the Frovoos and 
Gossains, or ' Gentoo Bishops,' as Mr Hoi well calls 
them. The Gossains promise to ferry you across the 
Bhubo-Sindhoo, or the Ocean of Life, upon their 
shoulders. But there is hardly a man among them who 
is sufficiently strong-built and broad-shouldered to exe- 
cute the feat of carrying you across even the Hooghly. 
Now, that loaves and fishes are scarce, the Gossains are 
leaving off to announce themselves at the doors of their 
followers with flag-bearers, and khootniesy and hautboj^s, 
and taking to the European method of announcement 
by cards. 

Mahesh , on the other side, is famous for being the 
scene where Juggemauth and his brother Balaram, 
having fasted the whole day, pawned a bracelet with a 
shopkeeper to procure some food. The ornament was 
missed by the Pandas (priests) on their return to Pooree, 
and they came to release it from the shopkeeper. Nearly 
three-quarters of a century ago, Warren Hastings had 



Travels of a Hindoo. 



his garden-liouse at Maliesh. One or two mango-trees 
of his planting were to be seen till very lately. 

We then sailed by the spot memorable for the 
labours of Carey, Ward, and Marshman — those avant- 
couriers of the Messiah, who first came out to this 
country for gospelling its people. ^ I do not know,' 
says Wilberforce, ' a finer instance of the moral sublime, 
than that a poor cobbler working in his stall, should 
conceive the idea of converting the Hindoos to Chris- 
tianity — yet such was Dr Carey. ^ 

Half a century ago, there was a dock-yard at 
Titahgur. The Dutch also brought their ships up to 
Chinsurah. Not only is the river silting up, but those 
were the days of small Portuguese carracks and Dutch 
galleons, and not of Candias, Simlas, Nubias^ and Ladt/ 
Jocelyns, 

Serampore is a snug little town that possesses an 
exceeding elegance and neatness of appearance. The 
range of houses along the river makes up a gay and 
brilliant picture. The interior keeps the promise which 
a distant view has given. It is the best-kept towoi in 
India. The streets are as brightly clean as the walks 
in a garden. There is not much bustle or activity — 
the place greatly wears the character of a suburban re- 
treat. But time was, when there was a busy trade, and 
* twenty-two ships cleared from this small port in the 
space of three months.^ The Danes were here for ninety 
years. They seem to have been content with this inch 
of ground, like their old prince Hamlet, and * counted 
themselves kings of infinite space.' 



Barrackpore. 



From the opposite shore, BarrackporCy with its pretty 
park and embowered vice-regal palace, bursts on the 
sight with a splendid view. Upwards of a century and 
a half ago, its rural precincts formed the Tusculum of 
that old Anglo-Indian patriarch, Mr Job Charnock, 
the founder of Calcutta. He used to come hither not so 
much to avoid the dust and bother of his bustling capital, 
as to be near that grave where there rested one with 
whom his heart still beat in sympathy. This alludes to 
his wife — a Hindoo woman, whom he had espoused after 
rescuing her from burning on the funeral pile of her 
deceased husband. 

As a specimen of architecture, the Barrackpore 
palace has scarcely any claims to excellence. The 
Marquis of Wellesley had originally commenced this 
building with the intention of making it a suitable 
abode for one who had subverted the throne of Tippoo, 
humbled the gigantic power of the Mahrattas, and 
numbered among his proteges the Great Mogul of Delhi. 
But the work was stopped by a dictimi of Leadenhall- 
street economy, the views of which have often proved a 
bed of Procrustes to many a noble undertaking. In the 
great hall, one may feel an unusual dilatation of spirit, 
and grow for the moment a most politic wiseacre, with 
big ideas, and state- views, and legislative this-and-that, 
filling the crannies of his head ; but he has scarcely to 
witness any display of vice-regal grandeur, or engage 
his attention with anything in the shape of curiosity. 
The only sights with which one might beguile himself 
awhile, are a small but diversified collection of portraits 



8 Travels of a Hindoo, 

of different Indian characters. There are the represent- 
ations of some Pindaree chieftains, in whose* rugged 
features may be read the history of their lives. The 
picture of a young Eajah of Cuttack has all the truth 
of an Ooriya likeness. 

The park, with its green slopes, and shady clumps 
of trees, and open lawns, and gay flower-beds — and the 
menagerie, with its giraffes, tigers, rhinoceri, and bears, 
are very good for purposes of holiday recreation. The 
parade-ground is memorable for the execution of a Sepoy 
regiment, which refused, in 1824, to go across the 
kalapane to Burmah : they were surrounded here, and a 
discharge of grape poured into them. Here, too, did 
Mungul Pandy play the part of reading the prologue to 
the great drama of the Sepoy Rebellion, and got his 
name made memorable in Anglo-Indian slang. 

From Buddihati to Shaicrafulhj — thence to Nemy- 
tirthd's ghaut, which is sacred to the memory of 
Choitunya for his having halted and bathed here in the 
course of his wanderings. The heath of Champdani is 
notorious for piracies and murders in days gone by. 
Then comes GJiiretti — the country seat of the Governors 
of Chandemagore, and the scene of their opulence and 
splendour. There was a time when hundreds of car- 
riages rolled over its beautiful lawn, now overgrown 
with wood and jungle. The Governor's house, described 
to have been one of the finest buildings in India, in 
whose lofty halls were assembled the beauty and fashion 
of the neighbouring European settlements, and where 
Clive, Hastings, and Sir William Jones had been enter- 



Chandemagore, 



tained, has become levelled with the dust and disap- 
peared. Until a few years back, there could be seen a 
portion of this building, standing in an awfully dis- 
mantled state, through the long array of gloomy trees 
facing the river. 

The French flag hoisted over Chandemagore meets 
the eye from a long way off. The place became a 
French settlement in 1673, but did not rise to import- 
ance till the time of Dupleix — the man who had the 
ambition, but not the resources, for playing the If apoleon 
of the East. It is said of him, that * he was seen in the 
streets of Chandemagore with a fiddle in his hand and 
an umbrella over his head, running naked with some 
other young fellows, and playing tricks at every door.' 
During his administration, however, more than two 
thousand brick-houses were erected, and fifteen vessels, 
bearing French colours, traded to diflerent ports from 
Mocha to the Manillas. But all this grandeur has 
passed away, and deserted houses, and silent streets, and 
neglected ghauts, and the absence of bustle and activity, 
give to Chandemagore the appearance of being devoid 
of life. The old fort, battered by the English fleet in 
1757, is seen in ruins. 

During the French Revolution, Chandemagore was 
all uproar and confusion. The banks of the Ilooghly 
then exhibited the scene of that feud and ferment, and 
resounded with that cry of Liberty and Equality, which 
were in active operation on the shores of the Loire and 
Garonne. There was a band of two hundred cast-away 
seamen, who, headed by a bankrupt merchant and brief- 



lo Travels of a Hindoo. 

less lawyer, were foremost to kindle tlie flame of tlie re- 
volution. Plunder only was their object, and riot their 
sole idea of reform. Goaded on by these motives, they 
committed every excess, and strove to outdo Robespierre. 
Their proceedings scared away the Governor, who fled 
to take refuge at Ghiretti. But he was dragged from 
this retreat, and thrown into a dungeon. Hitherto, 
Lord Comwallis had ofiered no interference, but when 
he heard of the imprisonment of the French Governor, 
he sent to demand his release. The infuriated mob dis- 
regarded his request, and, in spite of it, prepared to 
send the Governor to the Isle of France. Happily, the 
vessel carrying him was seized by Lord Cornwallis, and 
all on board similarly destined were set with him at 
liberty. Chandernagore was now left to all the horrors 
of anarchy. One freak of caprice kd the raving popu- 
lace to elect a President, whom they ' drest in a little 
brief authority ' — another prompted them to turn him 
out with insult and disgrace. Many a governor was 
thus made and unmade, till war broke out in Europe, 
and the English came and took quiet possession of the 
town in 1794. Twenty- two years afterwards, when 
everything had subsided into the calm of peace, it was 
restored to the French, since which it has remained in 
their possession. 

Chandernagore is finely situated upon an elevated 
bank. The road along the river has been justly called 
by Jacquemont, * a delicious promenade.^ Now that the 
rail has shortened the journey to Chandernagore, it has 
produced a revolution in private habits, and men toiling 



Ckinsurah. 1 1 



and transacting their business in the metropolis repair 
hither to recruit themselves in the country air. Under 
this reaction, Chandemagore is improving and abound- 
ing in country-seats and residences, and recovering a 
portion of its former splendour. 

February 12. — Off Chinsurah this morning. The first 
streaks of sunlight resting upon the beautiful edifices, 
many of them abutting on the river, the town wore a 
brilliant appearance. Perhaps Chinsurah is now neater 
and prettier than when described by Rennel, some eighty 
years ago. The noblest building is the college — origin- 
ally the residence of Monsieur Perron, the French 
General and Deputy of Scindia in the Doab. Chinsurah 
is a trim little town, quite free from the dirt and dust 
which drive a man almost mad in Calcutta. It is per- 
fectly void of noise ; no rattling of carriages to disturb 
the continuity of auricular repose, and no stench to 
offend the olfactory nerve. The place is excellent for a 
weekly dip into retirement from the eternal bustle of 
Cockncyism. No air of gloom that hangs over Chan- 
demagore. There is more ' flow of the tide of human 
existence in its streets,' and more life and activity in its 
society. 

The Dutch established themselves at Chinsurah in 
1675. So long as they adhered to a steady prosecution 
of commerce, they were uniformly prosperous and suc- 
cessful. But at last they got tired of calculations and 
counting-house drudgery ; power and politics became 
their pets, and they hoped for another Plassey-affair for 
themselves. This set Mynheer and John Bull by the 



12 Travels of a Hindoo, 

ears, aud the former was crippled for aye in the contest. 
The field of Bidera, where they met in the tug of war, 
is about four miles to the west of the town. Here 
Colonel Forde waited for a written authority to com- 
mence the attack. His note reached Clive when he was 
playing at cards, but without quitting his seat he 
wrote in pencil, — ' Dear Forde, fight them immediately, 
and I will send you the Order of Council to-morrow.' 
There is another memorable story of ' to-morrow,' 
though not of the same tenor. It is when Sir Colin 
Campbell was appointed Commander-in-Chief, and was 
telegramed to state when he could start. His emphatic 
and Spartan laconic reply was * To-morrow.' 

Chinsurah is the place where was invented the 
Punhah, by one of its Dutch Governors, at the close of 
the last century. The place was made over to the 
English about forty years ago, in exchange for Java — 
* brass for gold.' Nothing remains to tell now ' that it 
once belonged to the Dutch, except the escutcheons of 
the Governors that still continue to adorn the walls of 
its church.' 

Reached Hooghl^ -ghaut. Near this was the old fort 
of the Portuguese. Probably, a huge piece of old ma- 
sonry, that we saw to be dashed by and made the sport 
of the waters, was the last solitary remnant of that fort- 
ress. Hooghly is supposed to have been founded by 
the Portuguese in 1537. They used to kidnap or buy 
up children, to make converts of them, and then send 
them to be sold for slaves in different markets of India. 
In his need. Shah Jehan had solicited aid of the Portu- 



Expulsion of the Portuguese from Bengal, 13 

guese troops and artillery at Hooghly. The Governor 
had not only refused that aid, but had also reproached 
him as a rebel. The taunt was treasured up for an op- 
portunity of revenge. It came before long, and ' Expel 
the idolaters from my dominions ' was the brief but de- 
cisive mandate of the Emperor. To the very letter was 
this mandate carried into execution. The fort was taken 
after a siege of three months and a half by assaidt. 
More than a thousand Portuguese were slaughtered, and 
4400 men, women, and children were made prisoners 
of war. Out of three hundred and four vessels of all 
sizes, only three made their escape. The best-looking 
young persons were sent to Agra, and circumcised and 
made Mussulmans. The girls were distributed among 
the harems of the Emperor and his nobility. !ffot a 
trace was left of the Portuguese in Bengal ; and, except- 
ing the Portuguese church and the Portuguese surtout, 
with its hanging sinecure sleeves (our lupadaSy we 
mean), which had been introduced by them into the 
Indian wardrobe, and remained in fashion till the last 
generation, — the Portuguese name was almost forgotten 
in this part of India. On Hooghly falling into the 
hands of the Moguls, the seat of the royal port of Ben- 
gal was removed hither from Satgaon. The charge of 
the new emporium was given to an officer, called 
Foujdar ; the last of those fimctionaries, Manickchand, 
having the latest name on record as a son of Mars among 
the non-military Bengalees. 

One of the noblest buildings in Bengal is the 
Emambarra of Hooghly. The court-yard is spacious 



14 Travels of a Hindoo. 

and grand. The trough in the middle is a little-sized 
tank. The two-storied buildings, all round, are neat and 
elegant. The great hall has a royal magnificence. But 
it is profusely adorned, in the Mahomedan taste, with 
chandeliers, and lanterns, and wall-shades of all the 
colours of the rainbow. The surface of the walls is 
painted in blue and red inscriptions from the Koran. 
Nothing can be more gorgeous than the doors of the 
gateway. They are richly gilded all over, and upon 
them is inscribed, in golden letters, the date and history 
of the Musjeed. 

No circumstance shoidd render the name of Hooghly 
so memorable, as its being the place where was first set 
up, in our country, the Press, which Bulwer emphatic- 
ally calls * our second Saviour.' It was put up in 1778 
by Messrs Halhed and Wilkins, on the occasion of the 
publication of a Bengallee Grammar by the first of these 
two gentlemen. From that year was Hindoo literature 
emancipated, and emancipated for ever, from the mysti- 
fication and falsification of the Brahmins. The great 
event is scarcely remembered, and has not been thought 
worth taking notice of by any of our historians, though 
it has done far more for our civiKzation and well-being 
than can be hoped for from railroads and telegraphs. 

The Bandel church is the oldest Christian church in 
Bengal, built, according to the inscribed date, in 1599. 
The Portuguese Jesuits had very much disgusted the 
Empress Mumtaza by their worship of pictures and 
images, and this feeling had no small share in bringing 
about the destruction of the Portuguese Settlement. 



Satgaon, — Triveni, 1 5 



Prior to Hooghly, the royal port of Bengal was 
Satgaon. The Ganges formerly flowed by this place, 
and came out near Andool. There have turned out the 
remains of wrecked vessels beneath the earth which has 
overlaid the bed of the deserted channel. Satgaon is 
of great antiquity, having been known to the Romans 
imder the name of Ganges Regia, It is said to have 
been a royal city, of immense size, in which resided the 
kings of the country. The first Europeans who came 
toj Bengal describe two ports, — one Chittagong, the 
other Satgaon. The Dutch of Chinsurah had many 
country-seats here in the last century. Probably, the 
diversion of the course of the Ganges first led to the 
decay of this emporium of trade. The ultimate erection 
of Hooghly into the royal port occasioned its total ruin. 
It is now a mean village, without any remains of its 
former greatness, except a small elegant mosque. 
Literally, Satgaon or Supta-gram means the 'seven 
villages.' The well-known MuUick families of Calcutta 
are originally from Satgaon, whence they removed to 
Hooghly, and thence to Calcutta. 

Came to Triveniy or the junction of three waters ; a 
sacred prayag like Allahabad, where is held an annual 
mela in March for purposes of ablution. Long had this 
been the ultima thule of a Calcutta cockney, beyond 
which he scarcely made a voyage into the regions of the 
Mofiissil Proper. Triveni is also a very old place, being 
spoken of by both Pliny and Ptolemy. It is a school of 
great repute for indigenous Sanscrit. The great Pundit 
Juggernauth Turkopunchanim, who was Sanscrit tutor 



i6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

to Sir William Jones, and wlio compiled the digest of 
Hindoo laws, under the patronage of Lord Cornwallis, - 
was a native of this village. He had an extraordinary- 
memory, and an anecdote is related of him, that as he 
was coming home one day from his bath in the Ganges, 
he met a Kaffer and Chinaman abusing and fighting 
with each other in the streets. The case coming to the 
police, he was subpccnaed for evidence. He came and 
told to the magistrate that he had neither understood 
the language of the Kaffer nor that of the Chinaman, 
but he remembered the words each had uttered, and 
exactly repeated them from his memory, to the astonish- 
ment of all. Beyond Triveni commences the regular 
world of rurality. Brick-houses are now rarely seen, and 
ghauts and pagodas occur at long intervals. The river 
now expands in a broader surface, but loses the grandeur 
of its prospect by the interruption of sand-banks. 

Four miles north of Triveni is Doomitrdah. This is 
an extremely poor village, but noted very much for its 
robbers and river dacoits. To this day people fear to 
pass by this place after sunset, and no boats are ever 
moored at its ghaut, even in broad day-light. Traders, 
on their way home with the accumulated savings of the 
year, ran considerable risk of being stopped, plundered, 
and murdered near Doomurdah. Men, receiving their 
pay and annual buckshish, and returning once in a 
twelvemonth at the Poojah holidays to their country 
residences — where * there was an eye that would mark 
their coming, and look brighter when they came ' — and 
where the 



Doomurdah. 1 7 



* Children ran to lisp their sire's return, 
And climb'd the knees the envied kiss to share/ 

had, in hundreds of instances, to deliver their purses, 
and then fall victims to the pirates, who either threw 
them overboard, or sprung a leak in their boats. The 
famous robber-chief, known by the name of Bishonauth 
Baboo, lived here about sixty years ago. It was his 
practice to aflPord shelter to all wayworn and benighted 
travellers, and to treat them with every show of 
courtesy and hospitality. But all this profuse display 
of kind-heartedness at last terminated in the midnight 
murder of the guests in their sleep. Many were the 
victims thus hugged into snares, and then committed 
quietly to the peace of a watery grave, before his 
deadly deeds transpired to the public, and he was 
caught to end his days on the scaflPold. His depreda- 
tions extended as far as Jessore, and his whereabouts 
being never certainly known, he long eluded the search 
of the police. He was at length betrayed by one of his 
comrades, surroimded in the hut of his courtesan in the 
midst of a jungle, seized when overcome by wine, and 
then hanged on the spot to strike terror into the 
neighbourhood. The house in which he lived still 
stands ; it is a two-storied brick-built house just over- 
looking the river, whence he used to 

* Gaze where some distant sail a speck supplies, 
With all the thirsting eye of enterprise.' 

Past associations give to Doomurdah a gloomy and 
dismal look. The inhabitants are all jeJlas and mallas — 
boatmen and fishermen — many of whose fishing-nets 

VOL. I. 2 



i8 Travels of a Hindoo, 

were drying in the sun. They are, or rather were, 
every one of them leagued together to fish by day, and 
cut throats at night. 

Fifty years ago there were many noble houses in 
Sooksagur, The Marquis of Cornwallis often came 
hither to spend the summer months, now passed by the 
Viceroy in Simla. This was the country-seat of our 
Governors previous to the erection of the park at Bar- 
rackpore. The Revenue Board was also established 
here on its removal from Moorshedabad. The river 
has encroached upon and washed away the greater 
part of Sooksagur, leaving not a vestige of its 
numerous buildings. In the great inundation of 1823 
a good-sized pinnace sailed through the Sooksagur 
bazar. 

Chagdah, or Chackra-dah, is an abyss said to have 
been made bv the chariot- wheel of Bhaf2:iruth. The 
legend points to an antiquity, which is not borne out 
by any old vestiges or ancient population. The place 
is' at best a mart, or outlet, for the agricultural produce 
of the neighbouring districts, being crowded with ware- 
houses and brothels that generally compose an Indian 
bazar. There is always a large number of boats moored 
at the ghauts. The place is also a great Golgotha, 
where the dead and dying are brought from a great 
way off to be burnt and consigned to the Ganges. The 
deceased is seldom conveyed by any of his relatives, 
unless from a short distance. Poor people generally 
send forward their dead for incremation in charge of 
bearers, who never betray the trust reposed in them. 



Bullagur, — Goopteeparah, 19 

On the opposite side of the river is Bullagur, the 
abode of Gossaiiis and Koolins, of Vaishnavas and 
Vaidyas. Next is Goopteqmrah, the Brahmins of which 
were once famed for the brilliancy of their wit and the 
purity of their Bengalee. It was, in those days, the 
innocent diversion of the rich Hindoos to listen to witty 
sayings, to laugh at the antics of buffoons, to hear ven- 
triloquists, story-tellers, and songsters, for relaxation 
after the serious business of the day, all of which have 
been now banished from their boifukhanas by the brandy- 
bottle and its concomitants. Instances are known in 
which a witty saying has procured grants of land, or 
release from a bond of debt. 

Goopteeparah is also a seat of Hindoo learning, and 
has produced some remarkable scholars. But it is more 
famous for its monkevs than its Pundits. The former 
swarm here in large numbers, and are mischievous 
enough to break women's water-pots. It has become 
a native proverb that to ask a man whether he comes 
from Goopteeparah, is as much as to call him a monkey. 
* Raja Krishna Chunder Roy is said to have procured 
monkeys from Goopteeparah, and to have married them 
at Krishnugger, and on the occasion to have invited 
Pundits from Nuddea, Goopteeparah, Ula, and Santi- 
poor; the expenses of the nuptials cost about half a 
lac' If one were to comment upon this now, he must 
suspect the Rajah to have found a kinship between the 
two, or he would not have confounded Pundits with 
monkeys. 

February \Zth, — In the last century the Ganges 



20 Travels of a Hindoo. 

flowed immediately below Santipoor, Now, in front of 
that town, is a large sand-bank, behind whicb it rises 
with all its details. On Eennel's map, the position of 
Santipoor is at a considerable distance from the river. 

Most probably Santipoor has existed from remote 
ages. But its antiquity cannot be traced beyond the 
fifteenth century. The earliest known voyage down 
the Bhageruttee was made in the age of Asoka, who 
sent his son Mahindra with a branch of Buddha's 
sacred peepid tree on a mission to the king of Ceylon. 
But few particulars of that voyage have been preserved 
in the Buddhistical books. The Chinese traveller. Fa 
Hian, returned home by this way across the sea in the 
fifth century, and it would be interesting if any of the 
places on his route could be identified. There is, no 
doubt, a small nucleus of truth in the tales of Chand 
Saodagur's and Sreemunto's voyages, but it is buried 
too deep in a mass of fiction to be ever able to give us 
the benefit of its light. The earliest authentic mention 
of Santipoor is found in the history of Choitunya. It 
is a place sacred to the Vaishnavas for the birth and 
abode of his friend and follower, Adwaita. 

The sand-bank, now in front of the town, would not 
be a mile in breadth from the ghaut. But Holwell, 
who was landed here on his way to Moorshadabad, after 
the horrors of the Black Hole, says, that 'he was 
marched up to the Zemindar of Santipoor in a scorching 
Sim near noon, for more than a mile and a half, his legs 
running in a stream of blood from the irritation of the 
iron.' Once Santipoor was a large, populous, and manu- 



Santipoor. 21 

facturing town. It was then the seat of the commercial 
Residency of the East India Company. The Marquis 
of Wellesley spent here two days, in the magnificent 
house, with marble floors, built at the cost of a lac of 
rupees, for the Resident. In 1822, the place is de- 
scribed to have had * 50,000 inhabitants at least, and 
20,000 houses, many of which were built of brick, and 
exhibit evident marks of antiquity.' Now it has not 
half this number of houses. The place, however, still 
enjoys a great repute for the manufacture of fine cotton 
cloths — it being, in this respect, next to Dacca in 
Bengal. There are yet in Santipoor upwards of ten 
thousand families of weavers and tailors. 

The descendants of Nityanundo are Gossains of 
Khurdah. The descendants of Adwaita are Gossains 
of Santipoor. There, the principal idol is Shamsoonder. 
Here, the principal idol is Shamchand. One-third of 
the people of Santipoor are Vaishnavas. There are yet 
many toles, or seminaries, in this town, but much fewer 
than in former times. No Brahmin, however, now 
marries 100 wives, nor#does any widow think of sut- 
teeism, but re-marriage. The Baroary Poojah^ that 
used to be celebrated here with the greatest iclat, has 
also gone out of vogue. In one of these poojahs a 
party of Brahmins had assembled to drink and carouse. 
Under the effects of liquor, one of them proposed to 
offer a sacrifice to Kali, to which the others assented. 
But having nothing to sacrifice, one of the Brahmins 
cried out, Where is the goat ? on which another, more 
drunk than the rest, exclaimed, I will be the goat ! and 



22 Travels of a Hindoo, 

at once placed himself on his knees, when one of the 
company cut off his head with the sacrificial knife. 
Next morning they found they had murdered their 
companion in a drunken fit, and the halter staring them 
in the face, they had the corpse taken to the river and 
burned, and reported that the man died of cholera. 

In the Santipoor women are observed that light 
female form, that slender and delicate make, that grace- 
ful shape and elegance of proportions, and that smooth, 
soft body, which constitute the native beauty of Bengal. 
They have a great repute for their hair-braiding, to 
which the poet has done justice in the Biddy a Soondra, 
But Milton's 'amorous nets' are in Bharutchunder 
'snaky braids.' Lively conversation, and sparkling 
wit, also distinguish the Santipoor women. 

February IWi. — Set out for Kulna, a fine little town, 
nestled in the bosom of a rural and picturesque land- 
scape. Though not so large as Santipoor, it is much 
more neat and elegant, and has bettor roads and bazars. 
The river formerly flowed behind tlie present town, 
where old Kulna now is. Nojv Kulna is entirely the 
creation of the Rajah of Burdwan. Here he, as well as 
his Ranees, come to bathe on a festival, and the two 
places are connected by a road with bungalows, stables, 
and tanks every eight miles. Tieffcn thaler speaks 'of 
old Kulna. The river is again deserting the new town, 
and its gunge or mart has considerably fallen off from 
its prosperity. 

The first thing one goes to see in Kulna is the 
Bajharee of the Rajah of Burdwan. It consists of 



Kulna, — the Rajbaree and the Sumaj-haree, 23 

several noble buildings and lofty temples — the latter 
ranged in two circles, one within the other, enclosing a 
large circular paved court-yard, and forming a grand 
amphitheatre. One of the latest temples is most 
elaborately carved and ornamented. There is an alms- 
house in which several hundreds of beggars are daily 
fed. 

The next object is the Sumaj-haree, or House of 
Sepulchre, where a bone of every deceased member of 
the Rajah's family is deposited. The Rajah belongs to 
the Khetrya class, and observes the custom of pre- 
serving the ashes of the dead. He must have adopted 
this in imitation of the princes of Rajpootana, or, other- 
wise, he cannot find any authority in old Menu to 
sanction the proceedings. They show you here the 
bone of the last Rajah, wrapt up in a rich cloth. It is 
regarded as if the Rajah was li\4ng himself, and is 
placed on a velvet mmnud with cushions, and silver 
salvers, tumblers, hookas, rose-water and uttur-holders 
in front of the seat, just as the late Rajah used to sit 
with all the paraphernalia of state about him. 

Fehniary 20fh. — Yery bright and beautiful morn. 
Old Sol, the earliest riser of all, found us to have been 
already up and moving. There was balm in the pure 
river air more recruiting than all the iron tonics of 
allopathy. The bore used to come up as far as Nuddoa 
in Sir William Jones's time. But there is no tide up 
here in our days ; its force is spent below Gooptceparah, 
and there is only a little swell of the waters as far as 
Kulna. Proceeded walking along the shore, while the 



24 Travels of a Hindoo. 

boat followed us behind pulled by the tow-rope. Our 
pedestrian excursion this morning afforded us the op- 
portunity of inquiring into the means and circum- 
stances of many a rustic family. The condition of our 
peasantry is best known by a visit to their domiciles. 
From increased cultivation and from increased export 
of produce, the statesman may conclude the agricul- 
turist to be thriving. But he still dwells in a ragged 
hut, and still lives upon the coarsest rice. He still 
sleeps upon a pallet of straw ; and a few earthen pots, 
one or two brass utensils, and some scanty rags, filled 
with the dirt of a twelvemonth, constitute all his furni- 
ture and clothing. He still works out his existence 
like the beast that he drives in the field, and is a 
stranger to the civilization and enlightenment which 
have followed in the train of British rule. 

Near Mirzapore was to have been dug a canal from 
that place to Eajmahal, proposed by the Military Board 
some twenty years ago. The village is still situated 
' on a beautiful arm of the river, and presents some of 
the most enchanting rural scenery that one has to see 
in India.' By nine o'clock, a little wind sprung up, 
and the boat flew onwards like a merry falcon on the 
pinions of the breeze. Before noon we cleared many a 
winding and shifting of the river, and came in sight of 
the far-famed, the classic, and the holy town of Nuddea, 

Throughout Bengal, Nuddea is celebrated as the 
great seat of Hindoo learning and orthodoxy — the most 
sacred place of Hindoo retreat. The Choitunva Bhas"- 
but states: — 'No place is equal to Nuddea in earth, 



Nuddea. 2^ 



because Choitunya was there incarnated. No one can 
tell the wealth of Nuddea. If people read, in Nuddea 
they find the ras of learning, and the number of 
students is innumerable.' Indeed, the past of Nuddea 
raises very high expectations — ^but the present of it 
disappoints a man in the extreme. It is not found to 
be that hoary old town, with venerable ruins and 
vestiges, a crowd of temples and buildings of all epochs, 
a thick and ancient population, time-honoured toles 
and colleges in every street, and numbers of learned 
Turkolunhas and Nyanittuns, which one has reason to 
expect from its antiquity extending at the least over a 
period of six to seven hundred years. Nothing of the 
kind meets the eye, but a rural town of small size, with 
a little nucleus of habitations, and a community of 
Brahmins, rather busy in seeking for bread than in ac- 
quiring a profitless learning. The caprices and changes 
of the river have not left a trace of old Nuddea. It is 
now partly char land, and partly the bed of the stream 
that flows to the north of the town. The Ganges 
formerly held a westerly course, and old Nuddea was 
on the same side with Krishnagur. Fifty years ago it 
was swept away by the river, and the 'handsome 
Mahomedan College,' that, in 1805, says Lord Yalentia, 
' was for three hours in sight, and bore from us at every 
point of the compass during the time,' has been washed 
away and ingulfed in the stream. 

Modern Nuddea, or Nabadweep, however, is situated 
in a delightful spot. The Bhagiruttee and Jellingy 
here meet together their sister streams, and flow with 



26 Travels of a Hindoo. 

an united volume of waters through a tract of the 
highest rural beauty. The town is now surrounded by 
bleak, desolate sand-banks ; but, during the rains, it 
floats as a beautiful green islet on the bosom of an ex- 
pansive sheet of water. 

The earliest tradition relating to Nuddea states that 
two hermits of Billogram and Dhattigram retired here, 
when it was covered by a dense mass of jungles, to 
prosecute their studies in the recesses of its solitude. 
They attracted a number of learned men to the spot, 
whose fervent zeal in the pursuit of learning so pleased 
the goddess Seraswatee that she deigned to pay a visit 
to her votaries. 

From other mouths we heard the following account 
of the circumstances that first led to the occupation and 
rise of Nuddea. A Hindoo monarch of the name of 
Kasinauth, having set out upon a party of pleasure, 
happened to come down the river as far as Nuddea. 
It was then overgrown by jungle, and scarcely known 
to any indixdduaL But the Rajah was so much charmed 
with the romantic spot, that he at once resolved upon 
making it the capital of his kingdom. Ilis resolution 
was no sooner taken than orders were given to clear 
the jungles, and to erect a palace for his abode. Rajah 
Kasinauth removed hither with his court, and broujrht 
over with him three families of Brahmins, and nine 
husbandmen to people his newly-founded capital. 

Ridiculous ! — to found a capital and people it only 
with a dozen of men. Besides, no Rajah under the 
name of Kasinauth is mentioned in history. The 



The Rajah Liichvwnya, 27 



nomenclature followed in those days was different from 
that in vogue now. Hindoo parents now name their 
sons and daughters after their favourite gods. The 
name of Kasinauth is plainly a modem coinage. 

No reliable information can be obtained as to the 
time and circumstances of the origin of If uddea. The 
earliest authentic fact on record about it is, that, in the 
twelfth century, it was the capital of Luchmunya, the 
last of the Sena Rajahs of Bengal. This prince was 
very learned, and enjoyed the throne for eighty years 
— the longest that any monarch is known to have 
reigned. He was in his mo therms womb when his father 
died. The crown was therefore placed on the womb, 
and the officers of state, all girding themselves and 
standing in a circle round the mother, made their 
obeisance. On the approach of the pains in due course 
of time, the Ranee assembled the astrologers and Brah- 
mins to consult on the most auspicious moment for the 
birth of the child. They unanimously declared that it 
would be unfortunate for the prince to be born immedi- 
ately ; the stars would be favourable two hours hence, 
when his birth would destine him to a reign for eighty 
years. The intrepid lady resolved on this to postpone 
her accouchement, and gave orders to her attendants to 
keep her suspended by the feet till the particular hour 
specified by the astrologers. She was then taken down ; 
the prince was bom, but the mother died of the suffer- 
ings to which she had subjected herself. The child was 
immediately placed on the throne, and the commence- 
ment of his reign dated from that instant. * 



28 Travels of a Hindoo. 

Luchmunya is stated to have been the * Rajah of 
Rajahs of Hind ^ — * the Caliph of India/ But Brahmin 
learning and Brahmin idolatry, Brahmin courtiers and 
Brahmin astrologers, had superinduced that paralytic 
helplessness and lethargy, under which the last Hindoo 
monarchs yielded, one by one, to the first violent shock 
from without, and the ill-cemented parts of the great 
Hindoo empire fell to pieces, and were dissolved. There 
was Bukhtyar Khiligy in Behar, the capital of which 
had been taken by him only with a detachment of two 
hundred men, casting his eyes next upon Bengal. But, 
instead of catching the bull by its horns, the foretold 
dominion of the Toork in the Shastras was a foregone 
conclusion to its Rajah of the inevitable subjugation of 
his kingdom. Far from preparing to oppose in defence 
of their country and religion, the nobles and chief in- 
habitants of Nuddea sent away their property and fami- 
lies to a safe distance from the reach of the enemy. 
The old and imbecile monarch took no measures to avoid 
the danger, but waited in the infallible certainty of its 
occurrence. He was seated at dinner when the enemy 
surprised him, and, making his escape from the palace 
by a private door, got on board a small boat, and drop- 
ped down the river with the utmost expedition to reach 
Juggemauth, and there give up his soul to the god. 
Only seventeen soldiers worked this revolution in the 
destiny of some forty millions of people, and in the fate 
of the largest and richest province of the peninsula. 
The conquest seems to have been made merely by giv- 
ing a slap on the face of the king, and then taking pos- 



Choitunya. 29 



session of his throne. It bespeaks a degeneracy and 
an indifference, a languor and torpidity, a lack of the 
martial will and disposition, which form the standing 
reproach of the Bengalees. 

Well may have Bukhtyar written the bulletin of 
his conquest of Bengal to his imperial master, in the 
words of Caesar, * Vent, vidi, viciJ He gave up Nuddea 
to be sacked and plundered by his troops, and, proceed- 
ing to Gour, established himself in that ancient city as 
the capital of his dominions. 

From the Mussulman conquest of Bengal in 1203 
to the end of the fifteenth century, the history of Nud- 
dea again forms a blank. The removal of the seat of 
government must have led to its decay and insigni- 
ficance. It did not, however, altogether cease to exist, 
but continued a seat of learning, where many a Pundit, 
learned in law and theology, rose to distinguish him- 
self, and shed a lustre over the place. 

The brightest epoch in the history of Nuddea dates 
from the era of Choitunya. Regarded by his adver- 
saries as a heresiarch, worshipped by his followers as 
an incarnation, he is now truly appreciated by the 
discerning generations of the nineteenth century as a 
Reformer. Choitunya was born at Nuddea in 1485, 
His father was a Baidik Brahmin, who had removed 
hither from Sylhet. From his early childhood Choi- 
tunya gave signs of an eccentric disposition, but he 
possessed a very superior intellect, and the purest 
morals. He had also a very affectionate heart, and 
simple, winning manners. The age in which Choi- 



30 Travels of a Hindoo, 

tunya was born, had been preceded by one of great 
religious reforms and innovations. There was Rama- 
nund, who had revived the anti- caste movement. There 
was Kubeer, who repudiated alike the Shasters and the 
Koran, and preached an universal religion. Choi tunya 
was brought up in the faith of a Vaishnava, but his 
opinions took a great tinge from the doctrines of his 
two immediate predecessors. In Bengal, Buddhism 
had maintained its supremacy up to the tenth century. 
On the accession of the Sena Princes, Shaivism gained 
the ascendancy, and predominated in the land. Under 
coalition with Sakti-ism, the worship of the emblems of 
the energy of man and the fruitfulness of woman had 
degenerated to the most abominable creed of the Tantra 
Shastras, first introduced in Nuddea, most probably, 
by some of its clever Pundits. The Tantric worship 
culminated in the worst forms of libertinism about the 
time of Choitunya. Two thousand years ago had a 
greater reformer viewed with disgust and a relenting 
heart the bloody rites and sacrifices of the Vedic Yug- 
yas, and to reform the abuses had Buddha promulgated 
the doctrine of non-cruelty to animals. In like man- 
ner, the bacchanalian orgies of the Tantrics, and their 
worship of * a shamefully exposed female,' had pro- 
voked the abhorrence of Choitunya, and roused his 
energy to remove the deep blots upon the national 
character. He commenced his labours by holding 
meetings of his immediate friends at the house of 
Sree Bhasa. In these meetings, he expounded the 
life and acts of Krishna. Passages in the Bhaghut 



ChoitunifC^s Reforms, 



which every one understood in a literal sense, he con- 
strued -figuratively ; and, by striking upon the emo- 
tional chord of our nature, he thought of putting down 
sensualism by sentiment. In a little time, his enthu- 
siasm affected hundreds, and gathered round him a 
body of disciples. His doctrines being aimed at the 
profligacies of the Tantrics committed under the mask 
of devotion, they became eager to put down his schism. 
But Choitunya was a tough antagonist, who established 
his mastery over the revilers and scouters. Having ob- 
tained the sympathies and support of a large class of 
men, he openly avowed his determination to uproot 
Tantricism, and establish the true Vaishnavism. He 
now publicly preached in the streets of Nuddea, and 
went forth in processions of Kitiumcallahs, projjagating 
his doctrines through the villages of that district. On 
one of these occasions, as he passed hurryholing (taking 
the name of Heri) through the bazars and hauts of 
Nuddea, a party of Tantrics, headed by two bullies and 
swaggerers, Jogai and Madhai, attacked to disperse his 
procession. But in vain were the hootings, the pelt- 
ings, the interruptions, and the hostilities of the volup- 
tuaries to arrest and turn back the movement. In the 
natural course of things, licence is always succeeded by 
restraint. The triumph of their adversaries, therefore, 
was helped by that re-action, which forms a law as 
well in the material as in the moral world. In time, 
their wassails, their debaucheries, and their loath- 
some vices, made them the most odious beings in the 
community, and they smarted under the wounds which 



32 Travels of a Hindoo, 

a purer and sentimental religion inflicted upon their 
sect. 

In 1509, Choitunj^-a, fl/e«rs Nemye, formally renounced 
the world by embracing the life of an ascetic. He then 
wandered from place to place, travelled to Gour, pro- 
ceeded to Benares, visited Brindabim and Pooree, 
teaching his sentimental theology, making numerous 
converts, and devoting all his energy, time, and life to 
the fulfilment of his mission. His peregrinations lasted 
for six years, at the end of which he retired to If ila- 
chull, near Juggernauth, and, settling there, passed 
twelve years in an uninterrupted worship of that di- 
vinity. In his last days, his intense enthusiasm and 
fervour affected his sanity, and he is said to have 
drowned himself in the sea under the effects of a 
disordered brain. 

It is not our object to dweU on the merits of his 
religious doctrines, though their scope and aim had 
been to proscribe vices and immoralities which had 
tainted all classes of the society and disgraced the 
nation, and \ to inculcate purity of thought and action 
as the medium of salvation. To his zealous followers, 
Choitunya may be an apostle, an incarnate deity. But 
it is as a reformer that he is to be looked upon in his 
true light, and esteemed by the statesmen of the nine- 
teenth century. The abolition of caste, the intro- 
duction of widow-marriage, the extinction of polygamy, 
and the suppression of ghat- murders — are social reforms 
which a governor of our day would willingly under- 
take, and entitle himself to the blessings of genera- 



Choitunya^s Reforms. 33 

tions of Hindoos. Choitunya had nearly all of these 
great reforms in his view to produce a change in 
the destinies of his nation. Though Ramanund and 
Kubeer had raised the first voice against the exclusive- 
ness of Hindooism, it was Choitunya who properly in- 
augurated the anti-caste movement, to release the laity 
from the dominion and tyranny of the priesthood. lie 
roAived the old attempt of Buddha to obliterate the 
distinctions between a Brahmin and Sudra, and hence 
the animosity, the hostility, and the rancour of the 
Brahmins to his sect, similar to those with which 
the Buddhists had been opposed and persecuted for 
ages till their final annihilation. Hindoos of all castes 
are admitted into Choitunya' s fraternity, and once ad- 
mitted, are associated with on equal terms by all the 
brethren. His predecessors, Ramanund and Kubeer, 
had taken low-caste men for their disciples. But he 
scrupled not to permit even Mahomedans to enter his 
fold, and two of his most eminent followers, Rupa and 
Sonatun, were originally Mahomedan ministers in the 
court of Gour. 

It is not on record how far the evils of polj^gamy 
had manifested themselves in the age of Choitunya. 
But it may be presumed that his contemporarj^ Koolins 
drove a more thriving trade than their descendants of the 
eighteenth century, and often had two or three hundred 
wives to eke out their incomes by contributions upon 
their numerous fathers. The death of a single man 
risked the happiness of hundreds of females, and either 
Sutteeism or prostitutism often became their refuge 

TOL. I. 3 



34 Travels of a Hindoo, 

from the miseries of a widow-life. Choitunva must 
have witnessed and deplored the horrors of Sutteeism, 
and lamented the degradation of Hindoo females, before 
he could have had the incentive to interest himself in 
the amelioration of their condition. To him is due the 
credit of having first introduced that great social re- 
form — the re-marriage of Hindoo widows, a measure 
which must be acknowledged to have an indirect 
tendency towards the suppression of Sutteeism. The 
liberal-minded Akber is said to have * permitted 
widows to marry a second time, contrary to the Hindoo 
law ; above all, he positively prohibited the burning of 
Hindoo widows against their will, and took effectual 
precautions to ascertain that their resolution was free 
and uninfluenced. On one occasion, hearing that the 
Rajah of Jodhpoor was about to force his son^s widow 
to the pile, he mounted his horse and rode post to the 
spot to prevent the intended sacrifice.' But he cannot 
claim the merit of originality in these measures. He 
must have caught the cue from Choitunya, who pre- 
ceded him by half a century, and whose doctrines had 
produced a great impression upon the age. The honour 
of the first innovator and reformer can never be denied 
to Choitunya, who left the plant to grow upon a slug- 
gish soil. To Pundit Eswara Chundra Bidyasagur, 
should be conceded the credit of having re^'ived a 
measure which had gone into desuetude, of making a 
dead letter take a fresh effect, of giving to it a political 
significance through the assistance of the legislature, of 

« 

displaying the most energetic exertions, and a most 



Choitunya worshipped, ^^ 

unexampled self-denial, especially amongst the Ben- 
galees, in the carrying-out of that measure, and of 
maintaining his ground against disheartening crosses, 
losses, and disappointments. Justly has he entitled 
himself to be remembered by the Hindoo widows — and 
the rude portion of lower society has popularized his 
name in ballads sung about the streets, and in the bor- 
ders of cloths chiefly esteemed by women, but history 
shall award the first place to Choitunya, and the next 
to him. 

Old Menu was for burning and turning the dead 
into vapours. But Choitunya seems to have set aside 
his rule, and brought sumajs, or burials, into fashion. 
The most eminent of his followers have all of them the 
honours of sepulture done to their ashes. The sumaj 
is something between a Mahomedan burial and Menu's 
incremation. It entombs only a bone or the ashes of 
the dead. The sumaj of Joydeva has the priority of all 
in Bengal. 

To nothing does Nuddea owe its celebrity so much 
as for its being the scene of the life and labours of 
Choitunya. On inquiring about the spot of his birth, 
they pointed to the middle of the stream which now 
flows through Old Nuddea. The Brahmins here revere 
him as an extraordinary man, but deny his incarnation. 
His own followers regard him as an Avatar, and pay 
to him divine honours. They have erected to him a 
temple, and placed in it his image with that of his 
great coadjutor, Nityanunda. One-fifth of the popula- 
tion of Bengal are now followers of Choitunya. Nearly 



36 Travels of a Hindoo. 

all the opulent families in Calcutta belong to liis sect. 
He resuscitated Brindabun, and extended his influence 
to that remote quarter. But his tenets exercise their 
greatest influence in Bengal, where they have spread far 
and wide even up to Assam. Though he may not have 
succeeded in producing a general re- action in favour of 
the re-marriage of widows, he has put down Tantricism, 
its crimes and scandals, with a complete success. It is 
now rare to hear of Bhmjruhee-chucJxras — ^none dare to 
incur the odium of their celebration, and become objects 
of derision. His successors, the Gossains, are still held 
in great veneration, and maintained by contributions 
from the flock. The innovations of Choitunya have 
produced an important era in Bengal, which deserves a 
prominent notice that history has not yet taken. His 
sect may justly boast of many illustrious names, of 
eminent scholars, and men of parts and learning. Choi- 
tunya' s followers are known by the name of By ra gees. 
The genuine Byrageo is at once known from other 
men by his shaven head with a tuft in the middle, his 
naked person scarcely hid by any clothing, his body 
covered with prints of Heri's name and feet in ghooteen, 
his numerous strings of beads, his rosary and ever- 
twirling fingers, his smooth face, his soft manners, his 
urbane speech, and his up-turned nose at the name of 
fish. The Brahmin and the Bygaree have no sym- 
pathy between themselves. Each is the jest and butt 
of the other. The anti-caste movement inaugurated by 
Choitunya has been taken up by the Knrtavajas, Young 
Bengal filibusters about intermarriage, but nevertheless 



The worship of Kali. 37 

the antipathy between a Kayest and Bunya is as strong 
as between a Hindoo and Mussubnan. 

From the temple of Choitunya we had to pass 
through a deserted quarter, where a hardly discernible 
trace of debris was pointed out as marking the site of 
Agum Bagish^s abode. He it was who, Jupiter-like, 
first produced the image af Kali from his creative fancy, 
and instituted the worship of the female generative 
principle imder that form. There is an impression that 
Kali is the goddess of the aborigines, and that she has 
been worshipped from the pre-Vedic ages. But a study 
of the history of the Hindoo religion, and its various 
phases, is highly suggestive of the foreign origin of 
Hindoo idolatry. The worship of sacti seems to have 
been introduced from the Egyptians and Assyrians, 
and the image of Doorga is unquestionably a modified 
type of Ken and Astarte. The image of Kali is an 
original of the Hindoos, the worship of which is incul- 
cated in the TJpa-Poorans, written at a considerably 
later period than the Poorans, which first originated 
the idolatry of the Hindoos. In the worship of Kali 
may be traced the first origin of Tantricism, and her 
image may have been first set up by Agum Bagish in 
Nuddea. The age of this sage is not remembered to 
clear up all doubts upon the subject ; and it is also to 
be questioned whether the quarter in which the site of 
his house is pointed is a part of old Nuddea that has 
been spared by the river. 

In proof of the great antiquity of Nuddea, the 
Brahmins show you their great tutelary goddess called 



38 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Pora-fhaee, a little piece of rough, black stone painted 
with, red ochre, and placed beneath the boughs of an 
aged banian tree. She is said to have been in the heart 
of the jungles with which Nuddea was originally 
covered, and to have suffered from the fire which Rajah 
Kasinauth^s men had lighted up to burn down the 
jungles. The naturally black stone is supposed by 
them to have been charred by fire. The banian tree 
is at least a hundred years old. It is a proof that the 
river has not encroached upon this quarter of old Nud- 
dea. Near Pora-maee, has been put up a very big 
image of Kali by Eajah Krishna Chunder Roy in a 
lofty temple. 

The wealthiest man in Nuddea is a brazier by birth 
and profession, but who has risen to be a millionnaire. 
He has more than eight hundred braziery shops in all 
the principal towns and villages of Bengal, Orissa, and 
Hindoostan. In his house we saw a Kam-dhenUy re- 
minding of old Vashishta's Nandini. The Kam-dhenu 
is a rare animal, which receives greater justice at the 
hands of Brahmins than of naturalists. It is a cow 
which gives milk without breeding, and is worshipped 
for its coj)iousness. 

Much of Nuddea's fame rests upon its being an 
ancient seat of learning, which has exercised a great 
influence upon the politics, morals, and manners of the 
Bengalees. It is chiefly noted to be the great school of 
Niaya philosophy. But it has produced scholars in law, 
whose opinions still regulate the disposal of Hindoo 
property in Bengal, and rule the fate of Hindoo widows. 



The Learning of Nuddea, 39 

It has produced theologians, whose works counteract 
the progress of the Vaishnavas, Kurtavajas, and Brah- 
mos. It still produces an annual almanack regulating 
the principal festivals, journeys and pilgrimages, launch- 
ings of boats, sowings of corn, reapings of harvests, and 
celebrations of marriages, in half Bengal. 

Visited some of the toles or seminaries — there were 
more than fifty of them, and the largest was kept by 
Sreeram Shiromonee. He had some forty students, 
among whom one was from Assam, another from Telin- 
gana, and a third from Kalee-ghaut. Sreeram Shiro- 
monee was then the most learned Pundit in Bengal, and 
at the head of its literary world. He received his 
distinction at a large convention of Brahmins held in 
Bacla-Vikrampoor, near Dacca. They did not acknow- 
ledge him to be a bright genius, but a very erudite 
scholar. This headship in the world of letters is at- 
tained by successful wrangling, and Sreeram came off 
the most victorious controversialist on the occasion. 

Half, at least, of what one hears about the learning 
of Nuddea, is still found to be true. The community 
is for the most part composed of Brahmins, who devote 
their lives to study for many years. There are Vaish- 
navas who possess a respectable body of literature. 
The very shop-keepers and sweetmeat- vendors are im- 
bued with a tincture of learning. Many of these may 
not be able to spell their way through two lines, but 
would repeat a slokay or quote a text. The women, too, 
have comparatively intelligent minds. Pupils are 
attracted to Nuddea from great distances, and ofteu 



40 Travels of a Hindoo. 

spend half their life- time in their Alma- Maters. The 
truth of Menu's picture of a Brahmin, drawn three 
thousand years ago, may yet be recognized in Brahmin 
the teacher, and in Brahmin the studenty by one who 
visits the toles of Nuddea. 

But the place of the Brahmin in society has been 
completely changed by the advent of the English. 
Twice had the mind of India been roused to rise against 
Brahmin domination, and break through the barriers of 
caste. But the war, waged for centuries between the 
Buddhists and Brahmins for supremacy, terminated in 
the fall of the former. The reformatory efforts of Choi- 
tunya also have produced only an infinitesimal good. 
It has been far otherwise, however, with the results of 
the progress and spread of the English knowledge, 
which has dealt a greater blow to Brahmin power and 
reKgion than had been done by the fire and sword of 
the Mahomedans. It has ushered in a period of light, 
which has exposed him to be * an ants' nest of lies and 
impostures.' It has silently worked a revolution pro- 
ducing deep and lasting effects, and elevating the Sudra 
from the level of the swine and oxen to which the 
Brahmin had degraded him. The introduction of a 
mighty force has overpowered the influence which was 
imfavourable to science, to civilization, and to the w^ell- 
being of mankind. The Brahmin is no longer the sole 
depositary of knowledge — the tyrant of literature. He 
has lost the dictatorship which Menu had awarded 
to him. He has lost the ascendancy which was the 
natural reward of knowledge in ages of ignorance. The 



Altered Condition of the Brahmins, 41 

Sudra, his menial, his slave, and his abomination, is 
now the great parvenu of the day. The Brahmin is no 
longer in the Council, but a Sudra Deb, The Brahmin 
is no longer on the Bench, but a Sudra Mittra. The 
Sudra is now the spokesmau of the community. The 
Sudra now wields the pen. In the fulness of time, have 
the evils which the Brahmin perpetuated for his ad- 
vantages recoiled upon his head. His vaunted learn- 
ing, instead of being a qualification, is now his positive 
disquaKfication. It does not enable a man to shake 
off political servitude, to develope the resources of his 
country, to extend commerce, to navigate the seas, to 
construct railroads, and to communicate from Calcutta 
to London. Nobody now seeks the literary assistance 
or the spiritual advice of the Brahmin. He is scoffed 
at as an empiric, a mountebank, and a wise-acre. The 
legislature is closed to him because he does not under- 
stand a political question, and would not support the 
cause of a social reform. The courts are barred to him 
because he appreciates not the equality of justice, and 
punishes crime with * tooth for tooth,' and * eye for 
eye.' To be a Pundit now is to rust in obscurity and 
pine in poverty. He cannot find a patron now like 
Rajah Krishna Chunder Roy, under whom Nuddea 
flourished and abounded with learned men. He can- 
not have a Governor like Lord Minto to erect Sanscrit 
Colleges, and give him presents and khilluts. He can- 
not have a statue by the Viceroy, like that of the 
Pundit by the side of Warren Hastings in the Town 
Hall. There is now no encouragement to the Turko- 



42 Ti'avels of a Hindoo. 

hagish of Nuddea — no prospect for him in Kfe — no 
honour for his reward — ^beyond the gift of a hundred 
or two hundred rupees on . the shrad of an orthodox 
millionnaire. His household and his children, therefore, 
now engage more of his cares than the antique tomes 
of his forefathers. Undoubtedly there are yet Pundits 
of great abilities and learning, who confer a great 
benefit upon society by preserving the rich treasures of 
Sanscrit lore — the precious inheritance of Aryan patri- 
mony — from passing away into oblivion. But the 
great body of Brahmins have fallen into disrepute, and 
de-Brahminized themselves by taking to the service of 
the Mletcha and Sudra — by choosing to become quill- 
drivers in the Treasury, note-counters in the Bank, 
mohurrirs in the counting-house of a merchant, bill- 
collectors and bazar- sircars, cooks in native house- 
holds, and companions of dissolute Baboos, rather than 
have stuck to a thankless profession. 

Nearly all the great scholars of Oriental learning 
visited Nuddea in their days. Sir William Jones used 
to ' spend three months every year in the vicinity of this 
university.* Dr Carey came here in 1794, and wrote : 
— * Several of the most learned Pundits and Brahmins 
much wished us to settle here : and as this is the great 
place of Eastern learning we seemed inclined, especially 
as it is the bulwark of heathenism, which, if once car- 
ried, all the rest of the country must be laid open to 
us.' The learned Dr Levden, who was the friend and 
associate of Sir Walter Scott, and the bosom friend of 
Sir Stamford Raffles, was * for several months magis- 



The remarkalle Mahapurush. 43 

trate in Nuddea, where he was engaged bush-fighting in 
the jungles/ Dr Wilson also was a pilgrim to this 
famous shrine of learning. The Brahmins heard him 
with great wonder speak the Sanscrit language fluently. 
In the midst of his speech, he chanced to quote a pas- 
sage from the Vedas, on which the Brahmins closed 
their ears against him, but the Doctor good-humouredly 
reminded them, ' Well, sirs, donH you know that your 
Veda remains no Veda, when it is uttered by a Mletcha? * 
In Nuddea, we saw a Jogee, or Alexander's Gym- 
nosophist, once very common in India, but now a rare 
sight. The generation has passed away, who saw the 
remarkable Mahapurush at the Ghosaul's of Kidderpoor. 
He was apparently a man about forty years of age, with 
a very fair complexion, and jet-black hair. He did not 
eat or drink anything, nor speak a word ; but remained 
in a sitting posture, with his legs and thighs crossed, 
absorbed in meditation. His fasting did not appear to 
tell upon his health. To break and awake him from his 
meditations, smelling-salt had been held to his nose, hot 
brands had been applied to his body, he had been kept 
sunk in the river for hours, but nothing awoke him from 
bis reveries, or made him utter a word. Both Euro- 
peans and natives flocked to see him, and came back 
wondering at the curious man. No plan succeeding, 
milk was at last forced down his throat, and afterwards 
more substantial food, when the cravings of his senses 
were gradually awakened, but he died in a few days of 
dysenterj'', confessing himself to have been a Buddhist. 
The Burying Fakeer of Runjeet Sing was another puzzle 



44 Travels of a Hindoo, 

to physiologists. The Jogee that we saw in Nuddea was 
then a mere neophyte. He was a young man of about 
five and twenty, who had been practising his austerities 
for ten or twelve years. He sat the whole day, near the 
edge of the water, under a burning sun, praying and 
meditating. In a small hole two feet long, cut in the 
shelving bank, he passed his nights. He had not yet 
been able to overcome the powers of his appetite, and 
lived upon one meal a day, of only rice and dall, served 
by his sister in the evening. He was trying to bring 
himself to exist on the smallest portion of food, till he 
would leave it off altogether. He did not speak with 
any man, and appeared to be in pretty good health. 

To Jahn'7mgger, which is about four miles west of 
Nuddea, and below which the Ganges formerly held its 
course. Here is a small old temple of Jahnuba ^luni, 
who had such a capacious abdomen as to have drunk up 
the Ganges, and then let out its waters by an incision 
on one of his thighs. Immediately below the temple is 
traced the old bed of the river, annually flooded during 
the rains. In Jahn-nugger was a petty landlord, who, 
we were told, punished his defaulters by putting them 
in a house of ants. The Nabobs of Moorshedabad used 
to confine men for arrears of revenue to a house of bugs. 
Brahmaditala, in Jahn-nugger, is a spot where human 
sacrifices were formerly offered to an image of Doorga, 
and where a great mela is now annually held in July. 
One of the amusements in this mela, is the jhapaUy or 
the exhibition of the skill of snake-catchers and snake- 
charmers, and their pharmacopioea of antidotes. Natives, 



Krishnugger, — Convicts working in Fetters. 45 



who cannot seek the reputation at the cannon's mouth, 
will easily risk their lives by snake-bites, and die in a 
few hours. 

Next, we set out for Krishnugger, which afforded us 
a bit of fine trip up the Jellingy. Once, ' so far north 
as Krishnugger ' was a common phrase in the mouths 
of the Europeans of Calcutta. !Now, that * so far north ' 
is at Simla, or Peshawur. In two hours, we towed up 
to the ghaut at Gowaree, and on landing, made our first 
peep at the Judge's Kutcherry, where the worthy Daniel 
sat immersed in * petitions, despatches, judgments, acts, 
reprieves, and reports ' of all descriptions. 

On the road we found a number of convicts working 
in fetters. It will not be out of place to introduce an 
anecdote relative to these convicts : — ' A magistrate, 
being anxious to cut a road through a forest, employed 
the convicts under his charge for that purpose. The 
labour was very great, and also exceedingly tedious in 
consequence of the difficulty which the men sustained 
in working in their manacles. The magistrate was 
known to be of a benevolent disposition, and a deputa- 
tion of the convicts waited on him one day, and told him 
that if he would permit their fetters to be removed, and 
trust to their pledge that they would not take advant- 
age of the facilities it would afford them for escape, he 
should not lose a single man ; while the work would be 
more speedily and efficiently performed. The magis- 
trate, after a short deliberation, determined to hazard 
the chance of what might have been a very serious affair 
to himself, and relieved the men from their chains. 



46 Travels of a Hindoo. 

Long before lie could have expected its completion lie 
had nine miles of broad road cleared ; while the convicts 
returned voluntarily every night to their jail, and, as 
they had promised, he did not lose one of their number.' 

Krishnugger has been named from Rajah Krishna 
Chunder Roy, whose memory is held in great veneration 
here. He was a rich and powerful Zemindar of the last 
century, who often expended his wealth upon worthy 
objects. He was a learned man himself, and a great 
patron of men of letters. The court he kept was fre- 
quented by all the wits and literati of his time in Ben- 
gal. It was in his court that Bharut Chunder wrote the 
charming tale of Biddya Soondra, which forms the staple 
amusement to all classes of the Bengalees, and stanzas 
from which are caroled in the streets and villages. 
Rajah Krishna Chimder was a great rival of the Rajah 
of Burdwan, and is said to have set Bharut Chunder to 
level the poem as a squib against his adversary. 

The present Rajah has not a tithe of the grandeur of 
his great predecessor — an empty name alone remains 
his boast. TTe saw the young scion drive in a barouche- 
and-two. As he passed along, he received the homage 
of a bow from all persons on the road. 

The mansion of the Krishnugger Rajah was found 
to be a hoary, antique-looking building, without any 
fashion or beauty. The greater part of it was ruined 
and dilapidated, only one or two gateways remained to 
attest its former magnificence. 

* It was a vast and venerable pile, 
So old, it seemed only not to fall ; 
Yet strength was pillar'd in each massy aisle.' 



Rajah Krishna Chunder, 47 

In a Kali-baree, close to the Rajah^s dwelKng-house, 
were shown the apartments occupied by Bharut Chunder. 
Rajah Krishna Chunder was a great Shaiva, who insti- 
tuted many emblems of that god as well as images of 
Kali for worship. Throughout his Zemindary, his voice 
was dictatorial on niatters of orthodoxy. It is for his 
days, for his subhas, for his encouragement of learning, 
for his opposition to the Vaishnavas, and for his punish- 
ment of heterodoxy, that the Brahmins of Nuddea pant. 
In 1760, ' a meeting of Brahmins was held at 
Krishnugger before Clive and Verelst, who wished to 
have a Brahmin restored to his caste, which he had lost 
by being compelled to swallow a drop of cow's soup ; 
the Brahmins declared it was impossible to restore him 
(though Ragunundun has decided in the Prayaschitta 
Tutica that an atonement can be made when one loses 
caste by violence), and the man died soon after of a 
broken heart.' In 1807 there was * a Tapta Miikti, or 
ordeal by hot clarified butter, tried before 7000 specta- 
tors on a young woman accused by her husband of 
adultery.' But the Krishnugger that was orthodox and 
bigoted, and highly conservative, and prohibited dhohees 
and barbers for loss of caste, and held Tapta Muktis, is 
now a warm and eager advocate for putting down idola- 
try, for the spread of Brahminism, for the re-marriage of 
widows, and for the suppression of polygamy. 

Back to Nuddea, and thence to Agradweep, but not 
till the 23rd of August, 1846. It was blowing a little 
squall, and the rains having filled its bed to the brim, 
the Bhagirutee presented a broad, billowy surface. No 



48 Travels of a Hindoo. 

sand-banks to show up their heads now — the waters 
rolled over them full twenty feet deep. Meertulla is a 
dreary place, and a fit region for robbers and pirates. 

Near Patoolee, the burning- ghaut presented a me- 
lancholy spectacle. The friends and relatives sat apart 
in a gloomy silence, gazing steadfastly upon the fiercely- 
burning faggots that consumed the deceased, whilst the 
young wife, doomed to perpetual widowhood, stood a 
little way off 'like I^iobe all tears.' To European 
feelings, the burning of the dead is as horrid as the 
* roasting ' and ' cannibal feasting ^ of savages. But in- 
cremation is preferable in a sanatory point of view, and, 
probably, it first suggested itself to our Aryan fore- 
fathers, under the same notions that are now enter- 
tained by savans against the evil effects of burial. 

In RennePs time, Agradiveep was situated on the 
left bank of the river — it is now on the right. The 
great annual lyiela of Agradweep is held in April, when 
hundreds of thousands come to see the image of 
Gopinath perform the shrad of Ghosh Thacoor, a dis- 
ciple of Choitunya, who set up the idol three centuries 
ago. Brindabun has Agra or Agrabun : Nuddea has 
Agradweep. In 1763, the English defeated a body of 
Meer Cossim's troops in the neighbourhood of this 
village. 

August 2bth. — Cutica is Arrian's Katadupa, In- 
deed, Katwadweep, and Agradweep, and Nabadweep, 
all refer to a period when they must have been regular 
du:ccps, or islets, to have received such names. There 
is an allusion to Cutwa in the Kobin-kunkun, and a 



Cutwa. 49 

description of it in the Dhanna Pooran. Now a purely 
commercial town, Cutwa was formerly the military key 
of Moorshedabad. Moorshed Kuli Khan erected guard- 
houses here for the protection of travellers, and when a 
thief was caught, his body was split in two, and hung 
upon trees on the high road. In the early part of the 
eighteenth century, Cutwa had suffered much from the 
incursions of the Mahrattas. Their yearly ravages had 
depopulated all the principal towns and villages along 
the river, and converted the country into jungles, 
through which a traveller seldom ventured to pass 
without sounding instruments to scare away the tigers 
and boars. The retreat of Ali Verdi Khan, in 1742, 
before a large army of Mahrattas under Bhaskur Pundit, 
from Midnapore to Cutwa, through a miry country, 
without any food for his troops but grass and leaves of 
trees, and any shelter from the heavy rains, has been 
remarked to parallel * the retreat of the ten thousand 
under Xenophon ' 

To the Vaishnavas, Cutwa is a sacred place of pil- 
grimage, where Choitunya, flying from the roof of his 
parents, and leaving behind his wife, embraced diuidee- 
ism to shake off the obligations of society and the cares 
of a secular life. He was initiated into its rites by a 
Gossain, named Kesab Bharuty, and the hairs thrown 
from his head on the occasion are yet preserved in a 
little white temple. There are also two wooden images 
of Choitunya and Nityanunda, executed in a dancing 
attitude, as in a procession of their Kirtuns, for which 
they are objects of great curiosity. 

VCL. I. 4 



50 Travels of a Hindoo. 

Cutwa is famous in modem Bengal history, as the 
place where Clive halted on his route to Plassey in 
1756. His cavalier heart lost its pluck for a moment, 
and he was dismayed at the prospect of the high game 
he was to play with a handful of men» In this crisis, 
he called a council of war — the first and last ever called 
by him — and it opined not to risk a battle. He then 
retired to meditate alone in the solitude of an adjacent 
mango-grove. There he seems to have been visited 
and inspired by the good genius of Britain, and, stay- 
ing for an hour, came out with the word Forward on 
his lips, and ordered the army to cross the river next 
morning. Round Cutwa are many topes and groves 
of mango of various size and age. But in vain we 
looked for the memorable grove, where was taken the 
resolution that decided the fate of Bengal, and ulti- 
mately that of India. 

In a commercial point' of view, Cutwa is finely situ- 
ated at the confluence of the Adjai and Bhagirutee. It 
is a considerable depot of trade, being full of shops, and 
warehouses, and granaries of. rice. They make here 
* much fine stufis of cotton and silk,' says Tieffenthaler. 
There is within six miles of Cutwa a population of one 
hundred thousand souls. The greater portion of this 
population follows Vaishnavism. 

Coming back from our stroll through the town, we 
encountered a party of female choristers chanting their 
rude songs from door to door in the streets. The cause 
of their merriment was the celebration of some nuptials, 
when it is customary here for the women of the lower 



Plassey. 51 

classes to amuse themselves with singing hymeneals 
publicly. This provincialism was something novel for 
a Ditcher. 

The old fort of Cutwa, famous for the defeat of the 
Mahrattas by Ali Verdi, stood on a tongue of land be- 
tween the Adjai and Bhagirutee. It was a mud fort 
half a mile in circumference, and had 14 guns mounted 
upon its walls. But on the approach of Coote in 1757, 
the garrison set fire to the mat buildings, and ab-' 
sconded. "No more vestiges of this fort were seen by 
us, than some faint traces of the mud walls washed 
down almost level with the surface of the ground, and 
overgrown by fine green kusa grass. 

From Cutwa the celebrated Plassey is about sixteen 
miles higher up. The traveller's enthusiasm is roused 
to see the famous spot, and go over it — fighting the 
battle through in his imagination. But the memorable 
battle-field has ceased to exist — the river having swept 
it away. Of the famous mango-grove called the Lakha 
Baug, or the tope of a lac of trees, that was eight hun- 
dred yards long and three hundred broad, * all the trees 
have died or been swept away by the river, excepting 
one, under which one of the Nabob's generals who fell 
in the battle is buried.^ As long ago as 1801, there 
were no more than 3000 trees remaining, and a travel- 
ler of that date thus writes : — * The river, continually 
encroaching on its banks in this direction, has at length 
swept the battle-field away, every trace is obliterated, 
and a few miserable huts literally overhanging the 
water, are the only remains of the celebrated Plassey.' 



52 Travels of a Hindoo. 

In tte large mango-grove was the English army en- 
camped, and where Clive had been lullabied to sleep by 
the cannon-roar in the midst of the battle. The heavens 
seemed to have thrown cold water upon Suraja Dowlah's 
hopes, for a hea\y shower wetted the powder of his 
troops, and their matchlocks did not fire. The battle 
of Plassey made * Clive a heaven-born general,' and a 
Nabob-maker. It was got so cheap that he thought 
all the Asiatics to live in a glass-house, and proposed 
shortly afterwards to the authorities the conquest of 
China for paying off the National Debt. In Plassey, 
it was two Bengalee generals, Meer Muddun (an apos- 
tate) and Mohun Lall, who had contested the field with 
the 'Daring in War,* a circumstance to tickle the 
vanity of their nation, never wounded so much as when 
refused to be enlisted as Volunteers. To the chronicler, 
the battle of Plassey may appear as distinguished by 
no valorous deed or memorable exploit, but in the im- 
portance of its political or moral consequences, its name 
shall stand on the page of history as equal to those 
of Marathon, Cannae, Pharsalia, and Waterloo — the 
greatest battles in the annals of war. 

* The Palasa,* says Sir William Jones, * is named with 
honour in the Vcdas, in the laws of Menu, and in San- 
scrit poems, both sacred and popular ; it gave its name 
to the memorable plain called Plassey by the vulgar, 
but properly Palad^ Nobody, whom we asked, recol- 
lected when a grove of that plant had stood on the spot. 
Long had the jungly state of the neighbourhood of 
Plassey been a lurking-place for robbers and dacoits. 



The Adjai. 53 

It is now a cultivated plain. The spot where the 
solitary tree yet survives, is called Pirka Jaiga and held 

« 

sacred by the Mussulmans, whose reasons are inexpli- 
cable indeed for so doing. 

Giving up Plassey, we went up the Adjai on a trip 
through Beerbhoom. The navigation of this stream is 
very precarious as well as dangerous. Being a mountain- 
stream, its floods are as impetuous as its drainage is 
rapid. It is subject to a dangerous bore, called Surpa 
— a huge wave caused by a sudden fall of rain in the 
hills, which rushes down the dry bed of the river with 
a tremendous roar, washing away villages, and drown- 
ing men, cattle, and boats in its progress. Fortunately, 
the torrent came down on ihQ night previous to our 
starting, and we had a nice agreeable voyage up a river 
full to the brim. 

The Adjai is * the Amystis of Megasthenes,' and the 
Ajamati of Wilford. In its literal acceptation, the Adjai 
means the unconquerable, and many a Hindoo mother, 
like Thetis, formerly dipped their children in its waters 
to make them invulnerable. Hence may be accounted 
the name of Beerbhoom, or the land of heroes. It was 
anciently called Malla-hhiimi, or the lands of malls 
(wrestlers and athletaB). The legend alludes to a state 
of things, which is rendered not very probable by the 
appearance of the present men, who are not distin- 
guished by any superior physical powers and qualifica- 
tions from the rest of their brethren in Bengal. But 
there can be no question that the Adjai flows through 
a country of the highest picturesque beauty. The sur- 



54 Travels of a Hindoo. 

face of the ground is beautifully undulated, and dotted 
with neat and pretty villages. Here, a thick tope of 
young mangoes spreading their welcome shade, and 
there, the tall palms overhanging a crystal pond, vary 
the features of the landscape for a sketcher. The air 
is delicious and bracing for an invalid. Nothing filthy 
or noisome to interrupt the pleasures of the eye. The 
whole country spreads as a vast, bright, and charming 
park. 

Came up to BisramtuUah, a sacred spot overshaded 
by the branches of a hoary banian — with * daughter * 
and also grand-daughter trunks. On Choitunya's ab- 
sconding from home to turn an ascetic, his father had 
set out in pursuit of him to seize and carry him back. 
Scarcely had Choitunya shaven his head and assumed 
the clundee, before he heard of his father's arrival at 
Cutwa. Like a true runaway and scamp, he imme- 
diately took to his heels, and, making the fastest use of 
them, arrived without rest or respite at BisramtuUah. 
Out of breath, tired and sunburnt, he sat down under 
the* shade of this banian to repose his weary limbs. The 
spot has thence received the name of BisramtuUah, or 
resting-place. To appearance, the banian tree looked 
old and hoary enough to be the identical tree — or it 
may be, that they preserve a plant to cherish a memory 
of the spot. 

Little below Soopoor is seen that the unconquerable 
has been conquered — for the railway bridge thrown 
over the Adjai has chained, cribbed, and confined its 
powers to human will and purposes. 



Soopoor. 55 

August 29th, — Soopoor is two miles to the west of the 
station of Bolpoor, and half a mile inland from the 
Adjai. The elevated chattaun upon which it is situated, 
protects it from the inundation of that stream. Never 
has it been known to suffer from such a calamity. 
Tradition states it to have been a town of great repute 
in the ancient Hindoo times. It was founded by a 
Rajah Surath, whose memory is cherished in many 
legends. They show the vestiges of his palace and 
fortress — if a large pile of knnhery rubbish, and nothing 
else, be entitled to be considered as such. The image 
of Kali, before which he is said to have offered the 
sacrifice of a hundred thousand goats, was shown to us 
in an old decayed temple in the bazar. 

There are many brick-houses at Soopoor. The 
population is large enough. Trade, here, is principally 
carried on in rice, sugar, and silk. Many Santhals 
have emigrated and settled in this town, who perform 
the lowest offices in the community. Our durwan 
found out a brother of his in the bazar after twenty 
years, who had been given up for dead by all the mem- 
bers of his families. He had left home in a freak of 
anger, turned a sunnyassi, and, after pilgrimages to 
various shrines, had taken up his abode in this obscure 
town. In a day or two there came up another vaga- 
bond who had seen Hinglaz (near Mekran), Setbiinder, 
Chundernauthy and many other tirthas, and who proved 
to us an interesting fellow like Mr Duncan's sunnymsi 
in the Asiatic Researches. 

Lodging is cheap enough at Soopoor, but not so is 



56 Travels of a Hindoo, 

living. The only cheap article here is rice ; all others 
are scarce and dear. Fish is a rare luxury. It does 
not abound in these mountain-streams, and is never 
sold without being mixed with sand. The fisher- 
women say, that they would sooner give up their 
husbands than the practice of sand-mixing. The nu- 
merous tanks with which the country abounds are, 
therefore, well-stocked with fish. In Western Beerb- 
hoom, nearly all the tanks have reddish water, owing 
to the ferruginous soil. 

September 8th, — Left this morning for Kenduli. 
Passed through Soorool, where we saw the deserted and 
desolate premises used for the silk filature of the East 
India Company. Then our path lay through a suc- 
cession of paddy-fields, waving with the verdant stalks 
of com. Now, a bold expansive knoll planted with 
groves and orchards, and then, a declivity glowing in 
all the beauty of fresh autumnal verdure, produced the 
variety of a pleasing alternation, that contrasted much 
with the tame prospect of a dead level plain in the 
valley. The Hurpa, or torrent, had but just run down 
when we came up to the Bukkesur, a little hill-stream, 
that we crossed in a small canoe hollowed out of the 
trunk of a palm, while the bearers forded through the 
stream with the palkee on their heads. Two hours 
more and we reached KenduU — the birth-place of 
Joydeva, the great lyric poet of Bengal — we may say, 
of the world. 

Lassen supposes Joydeva to have lived about a.d. 
1150. But he was a follower of Ramanund, who 



Kenduli — the Birth-place of Joydeva. 57 

flourished in the beginning of the 15th century. 
General Cunningham fixes the date of Ramanund 
in the latter half of the 14th centu^J^ He cal- 
culates it from the chronology of Pipa-ji, Rajah of 
Gagrown, and a disciple of Ramanund, who reigned 
between the years 1360 and 1385. Joydeva is now 
remembered only as a poet. He is forgotten to have 
been a reformer. But to genius and scholarship he 
united other qualifications and virtues which made him 
revered as the greatest man of his age, and gathered 
round him disciples from far and near. It has been 
justly remarked, that 'what Melancthon was to the 
early Lutheran Church, that was Joydeva to the re- 
formation in Bengal.' Spending half his lifetime in 
study, travels, and preachings, Joydeva retired to his 
native spot with the accumulated sanctity of an ancient 
Rishi, and in his secluded hermitage composed the 
noble lyric which has surpassed all in the various 
languages of mankind. The song rose from a small 
obscure village in Bengal, but all India soon resounded 
with its melodious echoes. * Whatever is delightful in 
the modes of music, whatever is graceful in the fine 
strains of poetry, whatever is exquisite in the sweet art 
of love, let the happy and wise learn from the song of 
Joydeva.' 

The great charm of the Gita-Govinda consists in 
its mellifluous style and exquisite woodland pieces. 
Milton is said to have ' culled the flowers of his de- 
licious garden of Eden from the soft and sublime 
scenery of Tuscany ; and the charming retreats, in the 



58 Travels of a Hindoo. 

neighbourhood of Avemus, were probably the proto- 
types of Virgil's habitations of the blessed.' Equally 
the excellence of Joydeva's descriptions — of Radha's 
beautiful bower, covered with flowering creepers, and 
darkened by overhanging branches — seems to have 
been derived from the scenery of the fairy ground 
amidst which the poet lived. In Beerbhoom the 
beauties of the land are seldom obscured by the mists 
and evaporations of the Deltaic regions. The sun shines 
with a sharp clearness, and the landscape wears a vivid 
freshness and colouring. The mountains are almost in 
sight 'robed in their azure hues.^ The palmyra rises 
in tall majesty with its feathery foliage. The mango, 
the muhuya, and the tamarind thrive with a luxuriant 
growth. Flocks and herds are numerous. The gush- 
ing rills keep up a perpetual music. The gales are 
zephyrous and bland. In the midst of all these the 
poet lived and wrote, and they are reflected in his 
writings. 

To render emphatic homage to his genius, it is said 
that *the god himself came down to the earth, and, 
during the absence of the poet for a bath in the Ganges, 
put the last touches to the Shepherd^s song.' The 
Gita-Govinda has been translated by Sir W. Jones in 
English, by Lassen in Latin, and by Ruckcrt into Ger- 
man. But the poem, from first to last, ' consists of a 
series of exquisite woodland pieces, which Sanscrit 
poets know so well how to paint, and English writers 
find impossible worthily to translate. The diflerence 
between the natural phenomena of India and Europe 



Dool raj poor. 59 



forms an invincible obstacle to the rendering of Sanscrit 
poetry into the English tongue. The richest and most 
vigorous metaphors drawn from the scenery peculiar to 
Asia, and going directly to the Indian heart, are pre- 
cisely the passages which must be omitted as unin- 
telligible to the English reader. It is as if a translator 
of Tennyson were compelled to leave out everything 
that was national and pecuKarly English.' 

Kenduli is a venerated spot, where the mortal re- 
mains of the poet lie interred in a simiaj, overshaded 
by the branches of a splendid grove. To do honour to 
his memory, each spring the Vaishnavas celebrate the 
festival of his anniversary. During three days the little 
sequestered village is thronged by thousands, and its 
solitude disturbed by strange gaieties. The pilgrims 
* sing the reconciliation of Eadha with Krishna, but 
misinterpret the meaning of the shepherd's idyl.' 

From Kenduli we pursued our journey to JDoobraj^ 
poor. The first thing we did on our arrival here was to 
go and see its little hill. Indeed, it is not even a 
hillock, but a puny hill-ling of pretty appearance though, 
which pops up its head from a plain of large expanse, 
and seems, as it were, a little urchin left to itself by its 
gigantic parents. The height of it is about twenty feet. 
Huge blocks lie strewed around, barricading every path 
for ascension to its top. No tree or shrub grows upon 
it, and its aspect is perfectly bald. 

Doobrajpoor is situated almost beneath the shadow 
of the mountains. More Santhals here. The principal 
article of trade in Doobrajpoor is sugar, manufactured 



6o Travels of a Hindoo. 

from a fine quality of goor made by the Santhals, and 
which is chiefly consumed by the inhabitants of Moor- 
shedabad. Many people deal also in forest produce, 
formerly brought by the Santhals, but now by the 
dealers themselves. The region surrounding Doobraj- 
poor is thinly inhabited, and villages are scattered over 
it at distant intervals. The greater part of it is un- 
cultivated, and occupied by jungles and saul forests. 

September 9th, — To the hot-springs of Bukkesur, 
They are seen in a soKtary retired village, to which our 
passage lay through depths of saul- wood and jungles, 
and across paddy fields that were like little morasses. 
As we approached near, the village gradually unfolded 
itself to the view, rising with its numerous temples and 
houses like a fairy city of the desert. The spot is lovely 
and charming with greens of all kinds, and encircled by 
a beautiful gushing streamlet called the Paphara, or the 
washer-of-sins. 

There is an annual mela held on Sivrath at Bukkesur, 
to pay devotions to the god from whom the village has 
been named. The Pandas are a numerous class, and, 
owing to the scanty number of pilgrims visiting this 
remote jungly shrine, the arrival of a new-comer always 
forms a bone of canine contention to them, till one hap- 
pens to produce in his worm-eaten scrolls the testimony 
of some ancestorial signature or certificate, and carries 
ofi" the visitant, leaving the others to chew the cud of 
disappointment. Such a thing was not possible for any 
of them in our case, and raw grifl&ns of pilgrims that we 
were, our choice was given to the man who bore among 



Bukkesur, — the Hot Springs, 6i 

the herd the recommendation of an honest and intelli- 
gent physiognomy. 

The first thing we were led to see were the loonds or 
springs. There are about eight of them, each being en- 
closed by little walls of sandstone in the form of wells, 
and known by different names from those of our gods. 
The temperature of these springs is unequal, and a fetid 
sulphureous smell is constantly emitted from them. It 
is diffused through the atmosphere of the place, and 
retained by the water long after cooKng. The spring 
that has the highest temperature is the Soorjalcoofid, in 
which we could not dip our hand, and in which an egg 
may be boiled, but not rice, of which we threw in a 
handful to try the experiment. The water is perfectly 
crystal, and hardly a foot deep, it being allowed to escape 
through a hole into a nullah communicating with the 
stream. The bed of the well has a burnt- clavish matter, 
through which the water constantly oozed in small 
bubbles. A few paces from the Soorjakoond is a cold 
spring. There are springs in the bed of the Paphara, 
the washer-of-sins. But we have not yet alluded to the 
spring venerated most of all by the Brahmins. It is 
called the Setgungay part of which is cold, and part luke- 
warm. This seeming union of contrarieties is what strikes 
the Brahmins as most marvellous. The water of the 
Setgunga has a milky whiteness, whence the origin of 
its name. The Sahih-logues of Soory take away the 
water of these hot- wells for their drink. 

Next we went to see the veritable Bukkesur himself. 
The shrine of his godship stands aloft like Gulliver 



6z Travels of a Hindoo, 

amongst a host of Lilliputian temples. Inside the 
shrine, it is uninteresting as a sepulchre. The emblem 
is placed in a low subterranean chamber, where a feeble 
light burns day and night, contending with a profound 
darkness. 

It was nearly four in the afternoon when we left 
Bukkesur for Soory, and tracked our way through a 
deep forest of saul. Tall bristling trees closed the view 
on all sides, and not a trace of human abode was found 
in their wild, forlorn depths. These saul plantations 
are valuable estates to their owners, who cherish them 
with great care for their timber. On emerging from 
the forest, which extends for ten miles, we fell into a 
broad, macadamized road leading right up to Soory. In 
Beerbhoom, especially over the elevated knolls, the 
hard, red, kunkurry soil enables to dispense with all 
metalling of the roads. 

September 10th, — Soory is a modem town, with many 
brick buildings, and a principal street in the middle. 
The ancient capital of the province was Naghore, to 
which there was a grand causeway from Gour for com- 
munication at all seasons of the year. The environs of 
Soory — ^bold and beautiful. The prospects commanded 
are cloeed by blue, rugged hills in the horizon. Their 
' sweet mountain air' is sniffed from this distance, and 
recommends the place to the man in search of health. 

Proceeded from Soory down to Poorunderpore^ which 
appeared to be a decayed village from its former pros- 
perity, and where we met with an old, decrepit, poor 
dame, who, to our asking about her age, gave the fol- 



Poorunderpore. — Cynthia. 63 

lowing quaint reply, — that 'she was about ten years 
old when rice sold three seers to a rupee.' It was the 
year of that * great famine which swept away one-fifth 
of the population of Bengal/ in which John Shore 
wrote home to his wife ' that he was buying crowds of 
little children, at five rupees a-piece, to save them from 
being abandoned to the jackals;' in which 'the whole 
valley of the Ganges was filled with misery and death, 
and the Hooghly every day rolled thousands of corpses 
close to the porticoes and gardens of their English con- 
querors' — the year 1770. In 1846, the old woman was 
in her eighty-sixth year, which an ignorant creature 
of her circumstances not being likely to recollect, was 
counted by her from the year of the great famine, the 
most memorable event in her life, and indelibly im- 
pressed on her memory. 

November 12th, 1858. — It was not till twelve years 
from the last date, that an opportunity occurred to visit 
Beerbhoom again, and we shift the scene from Porund- 
pore to Cynthia, to carry the reader to Moorshedabad. 
To the north-west of Cynthia lay the regions then 
recently famous for the exploits of Sedhoo Manjhee, 
Singra, Pachoo, and Sookool — the Alexanders and Na- 
poleons of the Santhals. Few events have that great 
singularity of interest as the Santhal project of the con- 
quest of India in 1855 — which was intended to have 
been made with bows and arrows against all the mighty 
instruments of war of the nineteenth century — which 
threatened alike all Hindoos, Mussulmans, and English 
to be routed from the land as trespassers and usurpers 



64 Travels of a Hindoo. 



— and which would have turned the saloon of the Go- 
vernment House into a splendid hog- stye, and its 
Council Room into a dove-cot. 

Cynthia is finely situated in a charming region, 
watered by the Mourukhee. But Eastern Beerbhoom 
has a difierent physical conformation from that of 
Western Beerbhoom, and has gradually assumed the 
flat level character of the valley, partaking as much in 
the nature of its soil as its climate. This is the Raiir 
Proper, the inhabitants of which boast of a purer de- 
scent, and look down with scorn upon the people on the 
other side of the Bhagiruttee. Nothing afibrded us so 
great a pleasure as to pass through a country of one 
wide and uninterrupted cultivation, in which paddy 
fields, that have justly made our country to be called 
the granary of the icorld, extended for miles in every 
direction. No such prospect greeted the eyes of a tra- 
veller in 1758. Then the annual inroads of the Mah- 
rattas, the troubles following the overthrow of the 
Mahomedan dynasty, frequent and severe famines, and 
virulent pestilences, had thinned the population, and 
reduced fertile districts to wastes and jungles. It is on 
record, that previous to 1793 — the year of the Perma- 
nent Settlement — one third of Lower Bengal lay waste 
and uncultivated. These lands yielded no rent, and the 
State made over its interest in them in perpetuity to its 
subjects. Never, perhaps, has Bengal enjoyed such a 
long period of peace without interruption as under 
British rule. From the day of the battle of Plassey no 
enemy has left a foot-print upon her soil, no peasant 



Beerlhoom^ — Paddy and the Mulberry. 65 

has lost a sheaf of grain, and no man a single drop of 
blood. Under security against an enemy from abroad, 
population has increased, cultivation has been extended, 
the country has become a great garden, and landed 
property has risen in value ' more than forty- fold in 
one province, nineteen-fold in another, and more than 
ten-fold throughout all Lower Bengal/ 

Paddy is the great cultivation in Beerbhoom, and 
next to it the mulberry, of which the gardens are innu- 
numerable — dotting the country in patches of a dark 
green colour. The black soil of these tracts is the best 
adapted for mulberry. It cannot be ascertained now 
whether this plant is indigenous, or was introduced Kke 
tea at a remote period from China. Bengal grows silk, 
but Benares makes the richest brocades. It was under 
the Empress Noor Jehan, who first Kved in Burdwan, 
that silk fabrics became the fashion at the Mogul Court. 
The late East India Company introduced the Italian 
mode of winding silk, and the natives at once dropped 
their own method. In 1757, they sent out some Italians, 
and a Mr Wilder, who was well acquainted with the 
silk manufacture, to introduce the improvements. 
'Napoleon's Berlin decrees, prohibiting the exporta- 
tion of silk from Italy to England, gave a great stimu- 
lus to the cultivation of the silk trade in Bengal: a 
meeting was immediately held in London, and a re- 
quest was made to the East India Company to supply 
England with silk direct from India.' 

Reached Jammo-Ktindee, the native village of Gunga 
Govind Sing — the Dewan of Warren Hastings, and the 

VOL. I. 5 



66 Travels of a Hindoo. 

great-grandfather of the Paikparah Rajahs. He re- 
tired with an immense fortune, and devoted a great part 
of it to the erection of shrines and images of Krishna. 
His name has acquired a traditional celebrity for the 
most magnificent shrad ever performed in Bengal. The 
tanks of oil and ghee dug on the occasion are yet ex- 
isting. There were the Rajahs and Zemindars of half 
Bengal, and the guests being presided over by the Brah- 
min Rajah SiraChiinder of Krishnugger, the pomp of the 
shrad was magni&ei to be greater than that of Dakht/a* s 
Yugii/a, in which there was no Siva. In that shrad, 
the Brahmins are said to have been fed with the fresh 
pershaud (food) of Juggernauth, brought by relays of 
posts laid from Poorce to Kundee. 

Of all the shrines, the one at Kundee is maintained 
with the greatest liberaKty. The god here seems to 
live in the style of the Great Mogul. His musnud and 
pillows are of the best velvet and damask richly em- 
broidered. Before him are placed gold and silver 
salvers, cups, tumblers, pawn-dans, and jugs all of 
various size and pattern. He is fed every morning 
with fifty kinds of curries, and ten kinds of pudding. 
His breakfast over, gold hookas are brought to him to 
amoke the most aix)matic tobacco. He then retires to 
his noondav siesta. In the afternoon he tifis and 
lunches, and at night sups upon the choicest and 
richest viimds with new nimies in the vocabularj' of 
Hindoo confectionery. The daily expense at this shrine 
is said to be 500 rupees, inclusive of alms and charity 
to the poor. 



Kundee, — Berhampore. 67 

In Kundee the Ras-jatra was at its height, and illu- 
minations, fire- works, nautches, songs, and frolics were 
the order of the day, and followed upon each other's 
kibe. The Ras-Mandala was a miniature of the Hindoo 
Pantheon. It was interesting to see there the repre- 
sentations of the principal characters of the Ram ay ana 
and Mahabarat, in well-executed life-sized figures. 
There was Rama breaking the bow in the court of 
Janaka. There was Arjoona trying his archery to 
carry ofi* Dropodee. The Rishis and Pundits of Ju- 
dishthira's suhha had very expressive features. The 
greatest attraction of all was possessed by the fine 
figures and faces of the Gopinees. More than twenty- 
five thousand people were gathered at the mela, and 
the sum of ten thousand rupees was expended by the 
Rajahs to celebrate the festival. 

From Kundee to Berhampore — a distance of six- 
teen miles, through a flat, level country that did not 
appear to be thickly populated, and had a bad repute 
for robberies aild murders. 

Berhampore has risen under the auspices of the 
English. Many stately edifices adorn the town, and 
the military quarters, with an excellent parade-ground, 
form the most striking features of the place. In 1763, 
Berhampore was the utmost northern station. Golam 
Hussein, the author of the Seir Mutakherin, writing in 
1786, states, ' the barracks of Berhampore are the finest 
and healthiest any nation can boast of ; there are two 
regiments of Europeans, seven or eight of Sepahis, and 
fifteen or sixteen cannons placed there, and yet I heard 



68 Travels of a Hindoo, 

men say that the Mussuhnans were so numerous at 
Moorshedabad, that with brick-bats in their hands they 
could knock the English down/ 

The extent and crowded state of the burial-ground 
at Berhampore furnish the best comment upon its un- 
healthy situation. In that ground lies George Thomas, 
a son of Erin, who stepped into the shoes of Sumroo, 
and, from a pro tempore husband to his Begum, rose to 
be the Irish Rajah of Hurrianah. By one set of ad- 
ventures he had attained sovereignty — ^by another his 
musnud was turned topsy-turvy. Collecting the wreck 
of his fortune, the ex-Rajah was proceeding down to 
Calcutta in 1802 with a view to retire to his native 
Tipperary, when he died on the way at Berhampore — 
solemnly bequeathing his conquests and territories to 
his liege lord, George the Third ! It is said, that the 
adventures of this curious man gave the basis to Sir 
Walter Scott upon which to build his East Indian story 
of the ' Surgeon's Daughter.' 

'Mrs. Sherwood lived to the east of the burial- 
ground, and " Little Henry," the subject of her beauti- 
ful tale, '^ Little Henry and his bearer," is also buried 
here.' In the beginning of the present century, Ber- 
hampore was the residence of General Stewart. He 
* used to offer poojah to idols and worship the Ganges. 
He lived to an advanced age, and was well acquainted 
with the manners of the natives. His Museum in 
Chowringhee was opened to the pubKc ; during the 
last years of his life he fed a hundred destitute beggars 
daily : he was called " Hindoo Stewart." Like Job 



Kasimbazar, — Remarkable case of Suttee. 69 

Chamock he married a Hindoo, and she made a Hindoo 
of him.' 

It was at Berhampore that the Sepoy Mutiny first 
sounded its note of alarm. ' On the 26th of February, 
1857, the Nineteenth Bengal Native Infantry, quartered 
at this station, being directed to parade for exercise 
with blank ammunition, refused to obey the command, 
and in the course 'of the following night turned out 
with a great noise of drumming and shouting, broke 
open the bells of arms, and committed other acts of 
open mutiny. By order of the Governor-General, the 
regiment was disarmed, marched down to Barrack- 
pore, and there disbanded and sent about their busi- 
ness.' 

KasimbazaVy the great silk mart of Bengal, is now 
three miles from the river, and a wilderness. The 
Dutch, the French, and the English, all had factories 
here in the last century. The filature and machinery 
of the East India Company were worth about twenty 
lacs. In 1677, Mr Marshal, employed in the factory 
at Kasimbazar, was the first Englishman who learnt 
Sanscrit, and translated the Sree Bhagbut into Eng- 
lish, the manuscript of which is preserved in the 
British Museum. Job Charnock was chief here in 
1681. TTiere occurred here a very remarkable instance 
of Suttee witnessed by Mr Holwell in 1742, when Sir 
F. Russell was chief at Kasimbazar. The woman was 
the relict of a respectable Mahratta. ' Her friends, the 
merchants, and Lady Russel, did all they could to dis- 
suade her : but to show her contempt of pain, she put her 



70 Travels of a Hindoo. 

finger in the fire and held it there a considerable time, 
she then with one hand put fire in the palm of the 
other, sprinkled incense on it and fumigated the Brah- 
mins, and as soon as permission to bum arrived from 
Hosseyn Shah, Fouzdar of Moorshedabad, she mounted 
the pyre with a firm step/ The great Governor- 
General, Warren Hastings, was in 1753 a commercial 
assistant at Kasimbazar, where he devoted much of his 
time to the study of Persian and Arabic. 

Moorshedahad, originally called Mooksoodabad, is 
said by Tiefienthaler to have been founded by Akber. 
Though not spoken of in the Ayeen Akberry, the fact 
does not seem to be improbable. The central position, 
and its local advantages, may have recommended the 
spot to the notice of that far-seeing emperor to lay the 
foundations of its future greatness. Mooksoodabad 
remained a small place, but on the removal of the seat 
of Government by Moorshud Cooly Khan in 1704, when 
its name was changed into Moorshedabad, and when 
that Governor erected a palace and other public offices, 
and established the mint, the town rapidly grew in size 
and importance, rose to be the first place in Bengal, 
and attracted all eyes as the source of favour, and the 
centre of wealth and splendour. Including Kasimbazar, 
Saidabad, Mooteejheel, Jeagunge, and Bhogwangola, it 
acquired a circumference of thirty miles, and eclipsed 
Dacca and Rajmahal in their most palmy days. 

Of Moorshedabad Proper, the highest size was 5 miles 
long and 25 miles broad. This was in 1759, only two 
years after the battle of Plassey, when it had already at- 



Moorshedahad. 71 



tained its greatest magnitude. To speak of its greatness 
and opulence in the words of Clive : — * The city of Moor- 
shedahad is as extensive, populous, and rich as the city of 
London, with this difference, that there are individuals 
in the first possessing infinitely greater property than in 
the last city.' The population was so swarming, that 
when Clive entered Moorshedahad at the head of 200 
Europeans and 500 Sepoys, he remarked, * the inhabit- 
ants, if inclined to destroy the Europeans, might have 
done it mth sticks and stones,^ There was then * at the 
entrance to the town a large and magnificent gateway, 
and a parapet pierced with embrasures for cannon,* 
probably erected with other fortifications by Ali Verdi 
in 1742, when the Mahrattas had spread their inroads 
up to the suburbs of Moorshedahad, and when the Eng- 
lish obtained permission to build ' a brick wall round 
their factory at Kasimbazar, with bastions at the angles.' 
Up to 1770, Moorshedahad is described by Tieffen- 
thaler as having * an immense number of brick stucco 
houses, adorned with a great number of gardens and fine 
buildings, and that the Ganges there had an astonishing 
number of barks and boats on it.' In 1808, Mr Ward 
thus writes of it : ' Moorshedahad is full of Moors, very 
populous, very dusty, except a few large houses and a 
few mosques, the rest of the town consists of small brick 
houses or huts into which an European creeps : for two 
miles the river was lined with trading vessels.' It 
seems that Mr Ward took Moorshedahad to be a place 
of the Moors, and states it to have been full of those 
people. 



72 Travels of a Hindoo, 

The fall of the Mussulman dynasty was the first cause 
of the decay of Moorshedabad. The change of the 
course of the Ganges, which, deserting Kasimbazar, 
Mooteejheel, and Kalkapur, ruined the trade of those 
places, and turned them into 'impervious jungles de- 
nying entrance to all but tigers,' forms the second. The 
third cause must be traced to the dreadful havoc made 
by the famine of 1770, when * desolation spread through 
the provinces : multitudes fled to Moorshedabad ; 7000 
people were fed there daily for several months ; but the 
mortality increased so fast that it became necessary to 
keep a set of persons constantly employed in removing 
the dead from the streets and roads. At length those 
persons died, and for a time, dogs, jackals, and vul- 
tures were the only scavengers. The dead were placed 
on rafts and floated down the river, the bearers died 
from the effluvia, whole villages expired, even children 
in some parts fed on their dead parents, the mother on 
her child. Travellers were found dead with money-bags 
in their hands, as they could not purchase com with 
them.' The mortality was so great at Moorshedabad 
that whole quarters were left haunted, and sojourners 
returning to their homes found none of their relatives 
or friends to be living, — and they gave birth to tales of 
vampires and goblins that yet amuse children in native 
nurseries. 

The fourth cause must be assigned to the removal of 
the capital, the Revenue Board, and the Adauhds to Cal- 
cutta in 1772. 'The reason of the removal was — that 
appeals were thus made to Calcutta direct, and only one 



Moorshedalad, — The Puny a, 73 

establishment kept up ; the records and treasure were 
insecure in Moorshedabad, which a few dacoits might 
enter and plunder with ease. Hastings also assigned a 
reason that thereby Calcutta would be increased in 
wealth and inhabitants, which would cause an increase 
of English manufactures, and give the natives a better 
knowledge of English customs.' The abolition of the 
Punya may be taken into the account as another cause. 
* The Punya was the annual settlement of Bengal, when 
the principal Zemindars and all the chief people of the 
country assembled at Moorshedabad in April and May : 
it was abolished in 1772, because it was found that the 
amils or contractors rack-rented. The Zemindars used 
to come to the Punya with the state of omrahs, it was 
viewed as an act of fealty or homage to the Nabob of 
Moorshedabad, and the annual rent-roll of the pro- 
vinces was then settled. Khelats were distributed each 
year : in 1767 the Khelat disbursement amounted to 
46,750 Rs. for Clive and his Councn ; 38,000 Rs. for 
the Nizamut; 22,634 Rs. for the people of the trea- 
sury ; 7,352 Rs. to the Zemindar of Nuddea ; to the 
Rajah of Beerbhoom 1,200 Rs. ; of Bishenpore 734 Rs. : 
the sum expended on fKhelats that year amounted to 
2,16,870 Rs. The practice of distributing these Khelats 
was of long standing, as they were given to the Ze- 
mindars on renewal of their sunnuds, and as a con- 
firmation of their appointment ; to the officers of the 
Nizamut they were an honorary distinction. The people 
held the Punya in great esteem, and Clive, regarding it 
as an ancient institution, raised a special revenue col- 



74 Travels of a Hindoo. 



bctiou to pay tho expoiisos of it; but in 1769 the 
Court of JJiroctorn prohibitod tho giving presents at 
the l*uuyu.. In 1707, at tho Punya, the Nabob was 
Moatod on tho luusuud, Verolst, tho Governor-General, 
WUH ou liiM riglit, and rocommondod in the strongest 
mauuor to uU tho ministers and land-holders to give all 
poHHiblo onoourugomout to tho clearing and cidtivating 
of laudM for tho nmlborry. It must have been a splen- 
did «ight, when, amid all tho pomp of Oriental magni- 
floouoo, Kholats woi'o presented to the Rajahs or Nabobs 
ixf Dttooa, Dinty poor, Ilooghly, Purnoah, Tippera, Sylhet, 
lluugpiut), Boorbhoom, Bishonporo, Pachete, Rajmahal, 
and lUmgulpon\' Tho ceremony of the Punya was 
ttboliiJiOil, but tho Zemiudai*s yet keep it up in their 
Outchorioisi, as a custom hououi*ed in the observance and 
uot iu tho bn>aclu Tho annual settlement gave way to 
the dw^^uuial settlement, till, at last, the great landlord 
of tho soil — tho State, chose to accept a rent in per- 
petuity, and iutx>xluced the grand tlscal measure of the 
Vermaueut Settlemeut. 

Few vec^tiges of ancient iIov.>r^hedabad are seen at 
thii day. The lovely ilootee Jheely or Pearl Lake, is 
now a desert. Of the stately pwlace built by Suraja-u- 
i)uwta, of black marble brought from the ruins of Gour, 
oulv a few arched now remain. It wa^j here that Clive, 
like the aoicicut Earl of Warwick — the maker and un- 
niLukcr of kingc> — took Meer Jeliier by the hand, led him 
up the hall, and seated him upon the muj<uud» proclaim- 
ing him to be the ^ubob of Bengal, Behar, and Crista, 
and completing the ceremony in Oriental tlkihion by a 



Moorshedalady — Its Treasury at Clivers Jvrst Entry, 75 

nuzzer of gold rupees on a golden platter. Here, too, 
was that ricli and glittering treasury, of which 'the 
vaults were piled with heaps of gold and silver to the 
right and left, and these crowned with rubies and 
diamonds,' as actually found by Olive, when he made 
his first entry, victorious from the battle-field, and where 
he was at liberty to help himself, but about which, 
many years afterwards, when he had to defend his con- 
duct, he declared, *By God, Mr Chairman, at this 
moment I stand astonished at my own moderation.' 
There was in that treasury two crores of rupees in ready 
coin, and the payment of the first instalment is thus 
described : — * The money was packed in 700 chests, 
embarked in 100 boats, which proceeded down the river 
in procession under the care of soldiers to Nuddea, 
whence they were escorted to Fort William by all the 
boats of the English squadron, with banners flying and 
music sounding — a scene of triumph and joy, and a re- 
markable contrast to the scene of the preceding year, 
when Suraja-u-Dowla had ascended the same stream 
triumphant from the conquest and plunder of Calcutta.' 
The Kuttera, described by Hodges in 1780, as * a 
grand seminary of Mussulman learning, 70 feet square, 
adorned by a mosque which rises high above all the sur- 
rounding buildings,' is now aU in ruins. Near it was 
the Topckhana, or the Nabob's artillery. Moorshud 
Cooly Khan, who made defaulting Zemindars wear loose 
trowsers, and then introduced live cats into them, lies 
buried here as the humblest of beings at the foot of the 
stairs leading up to the musjeed, so as to be trampled on 



76 Travels of a Hindoo, 



by people going up. Here is an edifjdng tale of his 
humility. * Jaffer Khan, sometimes also called Moor- 
shud Cooly Khan, having a presentiment that his death 
was approaching, commissioned Mirad, the son of Ismail, 
a Farrash (a servant whose business it is to spread car- 
pets), to erect a tomb, a musjeed, and kuthntb to be called 
after him, and directed that it should be completed in six 
months. This man, on receiving the commission, re- 
quested that he should not be called to account for any 
acts that he might think necessary to adopt in the exe- 
cution of his work. On his request being granted, he 
immediately called upon the Zemindars to supply him 
with artisans and labourers to raise the building. He 
fixed for the site a piece of ground which belonged to 
the Nabob to the east of the city. For the materials 
for the work he pulled down all the Hindoo temples that 
he heard of in or near the city, and seized all the boats 
in the river. The Hindoo Zemindars wished to preserve 
their temples, and ofiered to furnish all the materials at 
their own cost, but this Mirad refused, and it is said 
that not a Hindoo temple was left standing within four 
or five days' journey round the city. He also exercised 
oppression in other ways, and even pressed respectable 
Hindoos while travelling in their suwarees (palkees) to 
work at the building. By this means the work was 
finished in twelve months. It consisted of a Kuthrub, 
a Musjeed, and Minars, a Houir and Baoli and Well — 
and Jaflfer Khan endowed it in such a manner as to 
insure its being preserved after his death.' 

In the neighbourhood of the Mootee Jheel ' once 



Lord Teignmouth, — Suraja-a-Dowla, 77 

lived Lord Teignmouth, who devoted his days to civil 
business, and his evenings to solitude, studying Oordoo, 
Persian, Arabic, and Bengali : after dinner, when re- 
posing, an intelligent native used to entertain him with 
stories in Oordoo. He carried on an extensive inter- 
course with the natives, and superintended a small 
farm : he writes of it, " here I enjoy cooing doves, 
whistling blackbirds, and purling streams ; I am quite 
solitary, and, except once a week, see no one of Christian 
complexion."' 

Moorshedabad formerly extended over a great part 
of the western bank. Du Perron describes the river as 
di^dding the city into two parts. On the right bank is 
the burial-ground of the Nabobs. The good Ali Verdi 
lies buried here in the garden of Khoos Baug. Near 
him lies his pet — Suraja-a-Dowla, who ripped open 
pregnant women to see how the child lay in the womb ; 
who ordered to fill boats with men and drown them, 
while he sat in his palace to enjoy the sight of their 
dying struggles ; who bricked up alive one of his mis- 
tresses between four walls ; who revenged the adulteries 
of his mother by violating the chastity of every woman; 
who kept in his seraglio a female guard composed of 
Tartar, Georgian, and Abyssinian women, armed with 
sabres and targets ; and who murdered persons in open 
day in the streets of Moorshedabad — forming the most 
perfect specimen of a Mahomedan character and fol- 
lower of the Prophet, particularly as regards his two 
great tenets of making slaughter a virtue, and indulging 
in a plurality of wives, and an ad libitum number of con- 



78 Travels of a Hindoo, 

cubines. Forster, in 1781, mentions ^ that mullahs were 
employed here to offer prayers for the dead, and that the 
widow of Suraja-a-Dowla used often to come to the tomb, 
and perform certain ceremonies of mourning in memory 
of her deceased husband/ The marriage of Suraja-a- 
Dowla was one of the most magnificent on record. It 
was celebrated by Ali Verdi, who * kept a continued 
feasting for a month in his palace at Moorshedabad : all 
comers were welcome, every family in the city, rich and 
poor, partook of his hospitality, by receiving several 
times tables of dressed victuals called turahs, none of 
which cost less than 25 Rs., and thousands of them were 
distributed in Moorshedabad/ 

On the right bank of the river was the palace of 
Meer Jaffier, whom his contemporaries styled * Olive's 
ass/ It was fortified with cannon, and large enough 
* to accommodate three European monarchs/ 

To give an item of the ancient trade of Moorsheda- 
bad : * the Pachautra, or Oustom Office books, state that, 
as late as Ali Verdi's time, £75,000 worth of raw silk 
were entered there, exclusive of the European invest- 
ments, which were not entered there, as being either 1 
duty free or paying duty at Hooghly/ None of the 
ancient families exist now — * the greater part of the 
nobles have gone to Belhi or have returned to Persia/ 
No Mussulman here now possesses a tenth part of the 
wealth of Khojah Wazeed, whose daily expense was one 
thousand rupees. The famous Softs, of whom Burke 
remarked in the House of Commons ' that their trans- 
actions were as extensive as those of the Bank of Eng- 



Moorshedalady — The new Palace, 79 

land/ and of whom the natives say that they proposed 
to block up the passage of the Bhagiruttee with rupees, 
are now reduced to the greatest poverty. One of their 
descendants still lives, and occupies the ancient ances- 
torial residence, which is in a very dilapidated state. 
He subsisted for many years by the sale of the family 
jewels, till, at last, the British government granted him 
a monthly pension of 1,200 Rs. His ancestors are re- 
puted to have possessed ten crores of rupees. The title 
of Jagat Sett, or the Banker of the World, was conferred 
upon the family by the emperor of Delhi. However 
reduced in circumstances now, the descendant of the 
Setts still has his musnud on the left in the Durbar of 
the Nabob Nazim. 

In Moorshedabad, the chief object to attract the 
traveller now is the New Palace, This is a splendid 
edifice, planned and executed by Colonel Macleod. He 
was the only European, the rest having been all natives, 
engaged in the work. The building is 425 feet long, 
200 wide, and 80 high — ^being the noblest in all Bengal. 
The cost is twenty lacs. Architectural men describe 
the Government House as a building pulled by four 
elephants, from the four corners, and give the palm to 
the Palace of Moorshedabad. The staircase is as grand 
as that which leads a man to the levees and durbars of 
the Viceroy. The marble floors are splendid. Nothing 
can be more sumptuous than the great banquetting- 
hall which is 290 feet long, with sliding doors encased 
in mirrors. The. different rooms are adorned in differ- 
ent styles. In the centre of the building is a dome. 



8o Travels of a Hindoo. 

from which hangs a vast and most superb chandeKer 
with 150 branches, presented to the Nabob by the 
Queen. Here lay a beautiful ivory seat, very nicely 
painted and gilt in flowers, which was said to be the 
throne of the Nabob. It was not old Luchmunya's 
seat that a Hindoo should have felt any reverence for 
it ; rather it called to mind the dark deeds of tyrants 
and profligates that were monsters in the human shape. 
The throne was a specimen of the perfection of that 
carved ivory work for which Moorshedabad is famous. 
Besides mirrors, chandeliers, and lanterns, which soon 
begin to cloy, there are no other decorations than a few 
portraits of the Nabob, his sons and ancestors. The 
latter does not extend beyond two or three generations. 
From a balcony was shown to us the Zenana. Re- 
membering how Hakeems and Colerajes even were not 
allowed to pass its threshold, and who prescribed medi- 
cine for the Begums by merely examining the urine, it 
was on our part an act of the highest espionage to over- 
look the Zenana. Inside the pale of the Kilhy or en- 
closure, within which the buildings stand, the will of 
the Nazim is yet law. Civil authorities have no juris- 
diction there, and we thought our audacity might cost 
our heads. From a hasty glance that we had of the 
Zenana we observed it to be a range of one-storiod 
buildings in a circular form, with an open plot of 
ground in the middle, laid out in little gardens and 
flower-beds. There were 30 ladies in the harem we 
were told, and about 50 eunuchs to guard them. These 
eunuchs * come from difierent places in Abyssinia, from 



Moorshedalady — the Emamlarah, — the Punkhees, 8i 

Tigra, Dancali, Nubia, and the Galla country/ The 
former Nabobs had much larger harems. That of 
Serefraz had 1500 women. It was Ali Verdi only 
who had been content with a single wife. Suraja-a- 
Dowla's profligacies had no bounds. His favourite 
mistress, * Mohun Lall's sister, was a lady of the most 
delicate form, and weighed only 64 lbs. English.' Many 
of Suraja-a-Dowla^s women taken in the camp had 
been ofiered to Clive by Meer Jaffier immediately after 
the battle of Plassey. The Seir Mutakhenn describes 
the court of Moorshedabad as * a kind of Sodom ; the 
women of the court talked imhlicly of subjects which 
should never pass the door of the lips.' 

From the Palace to the Emamharahy which is a great 
arcaded enclosure considerably larger than that of 
Hooghly. Of course, when fitted up with mirrors 
which reflect the light from numerous lustres, lamps, 
chandeliers, and girandoles, the place forms a scene of 
the most glittering splendour. 

Off*, on the other shore, lay some of the jmnJchecs, or 
peacock and horse modelled yachts and pleasure-boats 
of the Nabob, which give to one a faint idea of those 
pleasure-boats of the Timurian princes upon which 
were 'floating markets' and f flower-gardens.' No 
other craft chequered the surface of the river. The 
days are gone when the Ganges below Moorshedabad 
exhibited a brilliantly lighted-up scene, and bore on- 
ward upon its bosom 'floating palaces, towers, gates, 
and pagodas, bright with a thousand colours, and 
shining in the light of numberless glittering cressets.' 

VOL. I. 6 



82 Travels of a Hhidoo, 

The festival of tlie Beira is said to have been introduced 
by Suraja-a-Dowla. It is an annual Mahomedan fete 
^instituted in honour of the escape of an ancient 
sovereign of Bengal from drowning ; who, as the tradi- 
tion relates, being upset in a boat at night, would have 
perished, his attendants being unable to distinguish 
the spot where he struggled in the water, had it not 
been for a sudden illumination caused by a troop of 
beauteous maidens, who had simultaneously launched 
into the water a great number of little boats, formed of 
cocoa-nuts, garlanded with flowers, and gleaming with 
a lamp, whose flickering flame each viewed with anxious 
hopes of a happy augury. The followers of the king, 
aided by this seasonable diflusion of light, perceived 
their master just as he was nearly sinking, exhausted 
by vain efibrts to reach the shore, and guiding a boat 
to his assistance, arrived in time to snatch him from a 
watery grave/ 

The stables, the stud of elephants, the hunting 
establishments of the Nabob, are all yet on a princely 
scale. He wears every day a new suit of clothing, 
which become * cast-ofi* finery ' on the following morn- 
ing. If the physician prescribes a hcl-fruit for the 
regulation of his bowels, the price of it must be men- 
tioned to be a couple of rupees, or it would not be 
touched by his Highness. But the dominion that ex- 
tended throughout Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, is now 
bound within the nutshell of a little Icillay not half a 
mile in circumference. He has to wear no more slippers 
Korfh 50,000 Bs, He gets not now to chew such rich 



Termination of native Titles. 83 

bitels, as the spit would kill a sweeper. * There can be 
no doubt that the same end awaits the close of the title 
of Nabob Nazim of Bengal, which, without any ex- 
ceptional reason in its favour, has so long been per- 
mitted to survive its congener, the Nabobate of the 
Carnatic. The endeavour to maintain a stilted posi- 
tion on the strength of ancestral offices, is a pretension 
which under a Mahomedan rule would long since have 
collapsed ; attendance at the Royal levees in refulgent 
kinkhaub, and a discreet use of shawl presents, will not 
long stave off the inevitable oblivion ; and it has been 
due to the ignorance as much as to the pseudo-tender- 
ness of British sentiment that the vitality of such 
empty phantoms of departed greatness has been some- 
what unreasonably protracted. The error was a venial 
one, though if anything similar had been attempted in 
behalf of those whose names had been prominent in 
England's history, ridicule and mockery would have 
trampled such pretensions to the dust. The time has, 
however, arrived when the descendants of the families 
of the Nabob of the Carnatic, of the Nabob Nazim, of 
Tippoo, and of the King of Oudh cannot too early 
realize the necessity of accepting a position in Native 
Society analogous to that occupied by the noblemen of 
England with respect to its commoners. They cannot 
hope for a higher or more honourable one ; the frame- 
work of society and of our administration does not 
allow of their holding any other; and it will, when 
fairly accepted, enable them to train and educate their 
sons in a manner which would fit them for employment 



84 Travels of a Hindoo, 

and render them useful instead of useless and isolated 
members of society. There is small hope of so desir- 
able a change as long as baseless pretensions are 
nourished.' ' 

Old Bhogwangola is now twelve miles from new 
Bhogwangola. The former was the port of Moorsheda- 
bad in Ali Verdi's time, when it stood upon the Bhagi- 
ruttee, now flowing some five miles westward. In old 
Bhogwangola are remains that testify to its having 
been * a very extensive town or a series of large villages, 
now overgrown with forests, and dotted with numerous 
tanks and other signs of population.' !New Bhogwan- 
gola is a great corn-fair, in which, says Bishop Heber, 
'the small but neat mat-houses are scattered over a 
large green common, fenced off from the river by a 
high grassy moimd, which forms an excellent dry walk, 
bordered with mango-trees, bamboos, and the date- 
palm, as v/ell as some fine banians. The common was 
covered with children and cattle, a considerable number 
of boats was on the beach, different musical instruments 
were strumming, thumping, squealing, and rattling 
from some of the open sheds, and the whole place ex- 
hibited a cheerfulness, and an activity and bustle, which 
were extremely interesting and pleasing.' But a se- 
cond time has the Ganges played its freaks with Bho- 
gwangola, and devoured a great portion of it that is 
spoken of by Heber. 

Nearly forty miles above Moorshedabad is Jungijwre, 
said to have been named after the emperor Jehangeer. 
It stands on the eastern bank, and was formerly noted 



Jungipore. — Sooty, 85 



for its largest silk filature. Lord Valentia, iu 1802, 
describes the place * as the greatest silk station of the 
East India Company, and employing 3000 persons.' 
The Charter of 1833 doomed Jungipore and all other 
silk and cotton ports of Bengal to decay, and the place 
is now a toll-station, by which about 50,000 boats 
annually pass, paying a tax on average of 3 Rs. for 
each boat. 

Twenty-one miles again from Jungipore is Soofi/y 
where the Bhagiruttee has branched off from the 
Ganges. The neighbourhood of Sooty is remarkable 
for the battle of Gheriah, fought between Ali Verdi 
and Serefraz Khan in 1740. There was another battle 
fought in 1763 between Mcer Cossim and the English. 
The mouth at Sooty appears to have seldom had a free, 
navigable stream. Ta vernier, writing in 1665, men- 
tions that * there was a sand-bank before Sooty, which 
rendered it impassable in Januarj^, so that Bernier was 
obliged to travel by land from Rajmahal to Hooghly.' 
It seems to have had an open passage at the time of 
Suraja-a-Dowla, who, * alarmed at the capture of Chan- 
demagore, and afraid that the English would bring 
their ships up the Pudma and into the Bhagiinittee, 
sunk vessels near Sooty' to provide against such a 
contingency. 

Passing Sooty, the voyager falls into the waters of 
the Great Ganges, that, rolling on for a thousand of miles 
in one unbroken current, has here first turned its course 
to flow with the swelled tribute of a hundred streams 
into the great reservoir of the sea. 



86 Travels of a Hindoo. 

* Vast as a sea the Ganges flows, 
And fed by Himalaya's snows, 
Or rushing rains, with giant force 
Unwearied runs its fated course.' 

The low marsliy country, extending from Rajmahal 
to Nuddea, and measuring a distance of 100 miles, is 
where tradition points out the former bed of the Ganges 
before the formation of the Pudma, and before also the 
existence of the present Bhagiruttee. It is inscrutable 
now to imderstand the legend of Bhagiruth having 
brought the Ganges, but, doubtless, it refers to some 
natural phenomenon which probably occurred in the 
reign of that Hindoo prince, and on which scientific 
researches may throw some light on a future day. 

The ruins of Gour, — No one sailing up from Sooty, 
and passing so near the spot, should omit to see the 
ancient, the historic, and the most interesting of all 
places in Bengal — Gour, which stands upon the opposite 
bank, and is but half a day's journey. Desolate as it 
now is, it is invested with the associations of a thousand 
years — with reminiscences of the Pala and Sena Rajahs, 
and of Mussulman princes till near the end of the six- 
teenth century. The city of Deva Pala and Mahindra 
Pala, of Adisura and BuUala Sena, offers a fair field for 
archaeological investigation. No very ancient remains 
are said to exist there, but this is an assertion made, we 
think, without proper and sufiicient inquiries. 

Much uncertainty exists as to the origin of Gour. 
In the opinion of Rennel, * Gour, called also Lucknouti, 
the ancient capital of Bengal, and supposed to be the 
Gangia regia of Ptolemy, stood on the left bank of the 



The Ruins of Gour, 87 

Ganges, about twenty miles below Rajmahal. It was 
the capital of Bengal 730 years before Christ, and was 
repaired and beautified by Hoomayoon, who gave it the 
name of Jennuteabad ; which name a part of the Cir- 
car, in which it was situated, still bears.' No doubt, 
the antiquity of Gour stretches back many a century, 
but it cannot be believed to extend to so remote a 
period as the eighth century before Christ. Buddha 
would then have most likely visited it on his way to 
Kooch Vihar, and the fact would have been mentioned 
in Buddhistical writings. The Mahabarat does not 
speak of it as having been seen by the Panda va brothers 
in their peregrinations. The Puranas speak of Bengal 
imder the name of Bungo, and not of Gour, by which 
it was subsequently called. Ptolemy^s Gangia regia 
must refer to some other place, and not to Gour. Fa 
Hian visited India in the beginning of the fifth, and 
Hwen Thsang in the early part of the seventh century, 
and they do not speak of Gour. The date assigned by 
Wilford — A.D. 648, seems to be the most probable period 
when Gour was founded, on the independence of 
Bengal from the dominion of Magadha. Bengal, 
called by Akber, the paradise of countries, appears to 
have first had its own sovereigns on the fall of the 
Andra dynasty in the middle of the seventh century. 
True, that the Mahabarat speaks of a king of Bengal, 
but he went to the Great War as an ally of the king of 
Magadha. It was not till the time specified by Wilford 
that Bengal had its independent kings, and Gour be- 
came the capital of those kings. 



88 Travels of a Hindoo. 

If copper tablets and stone columns do not perpetuate 
falselicods, it is now more tlian a thousand years past, 
since from the capital of ^ the richest province of India 
with the most pusillanimous Hindoo population/ that 
warriors issued forth and war-boats sailed up the Ganges, 
to bring Kamrupa on the east, and Camboja on the west, 
and Kalinga on the south, to acknowledge the supremacy 
of its sovereigns. It is doubtful whether any vestiges of 
this most glorious period in the history of the Bengalees 
can now be found in Gour. From an inscription upon 
a temple of Buddha in Benares, it is seen that a Pala 
Eajah was reigning in Bengal in the year 1026. The 
overthrow of that dynasty by the Senas, the conquest of 
Benares by the Rahtores, the destruction of Sarnath, and 
the ascendancy of Shaivaism, are all events that seem to 
have occurred within a few years of each other. Prob- 
ably Adisura established himself on the throne of Gour 
about the same time that Anangpal II. retired to and 
re-built the capital of Delhi. Kannouge had been 
abandoned by the Tomaras for Barri, and did not 
flourish again under the Rahtores till about the year 
1050. It must have been subsequent to this period, that 
Adisura, finding no worthy Brahmins among the illiter- 
ate and heretic Barendros of Buddhistical Bengal to 
celebrate his Yugiya, had sent to invite five orthodox 
Brahmins from Kannouge. Bullala Sena, commonly 
supposed to be his son, but really his great- great- grand- 
son, * is found on reliable authority to have been reign- 
ing in 1097. The son and successor of Bullala was 

* ' The Sena Rajahs of Bengal,' by Baboo Rajendro Lall Mitter. 



History of Gokt, 89 



Luchmun Sena, who is said by the Mahoraedan histo- 
rians to have * greatly embellished the city of Goiir, 
and called it after his own name Lucknouty, or Luch- 
mana-vati.' His grandson Luchmuniya, however, held 
his court at Nuddea, whence he was driven by Buktiyar 
Khilligy, under whom Gour once more became the 
capital of Mahomedan sovereignty in Bengal. 

Of Hindoo Gour, probably no more traces exist than 
in the Hindoo Figures and Inscriptions found in the ruins 
of mosques built with the materials of Hindoo temples 
destroyed to assert the superiority of Islam. Forty 
years after it had fallen into the hands of the Mahome- 
dans, Minajudden Jowzani, author of the Tab-Jcat-i' 
Nasiri, writing on the spot, has left this on record : — 
* The writer of this work arrived at Lucknowty in the 
year 641, and visited all the religious buildings erected 
by the prince Hissam Addeen Avuz. Lucknowty con- 
sists of two wings, one on each side of the Ganges : the 
western side is called Dal, and the city of Lucknowty is 
on that side. From Lucknowty to Naghore (in Beer- 
bhoom), and on the other side to Deocote, a mound or 
causeway is formed the distance of ten days^ journey, 
which in the rainy season prevents the water from over- 
flowing the lands : and if this mound did not exist, 
there would be no other mode of travelling nor of visit- 
ing the edifices in the neighbourhood but in boats. Since 
his time, in consequence of the construction of the cause- 
way, the road is open to everybody.' 

Under the Patans, Gour had attained the size of 
'twenty miles in circumference,' and was inclosed by *a 



9© Travels of a Hindoo. 

wall sixtyfeet high.' It had 'two millions of inhabitants/ 
and was the populous capital of the most populous pro- 
vince in the empire. The streets were ' wide enough/ 
but * the people were so numerous that they were some- 
times trodden to death.' They had certainly no street 
like the Chowringhee, and in ancient Gour there were 
no other wheeled carriages to run over a man than the 
ekhtty the accidents on the road therefore must have been 
owing to a bad police. But the opulence of the people 
seems to have exceeded that of the nobility of modern 
Calcutta. The rich of Gour are said to have been ' used 
to eat their food from golden plates/ which are not yet 
seen on the tables of any European or native. The city 
was adorned with many stately mosques, colleges, baths, 
and caravanserais. So immense was the number of its 
edifices, that ' a tax of 8,000 Es. was annually levied for 
permitting bricks to be brought from Gour for buildings 
in Moorshedabad.' These bricks were * enamelled,' and 
* the natives of Bengal now cannot make equal to those 
manufactured at Gour.' In this state of grandeur, it 
rivalled Delhi, and was at one time the first city in the 
empire. The 'mosque, baths, reservoir, and caravan- 
serais, distinguished by the name of Jelally/ were con- 
structed by Sultan Jelaluddeen in 1409. The fortifica- 
tions round the city were built by Nasir Shah in the 
middle of the fifteenth centuary. The Soona Musjeed, 
or the Golden Mosque, and the Kudum Roostilj or the 
Footstep of the Prophet, were erected by Nusserit Shah 
in the years 1526 and 1532. 

Hoomayoon was so pleased with Gour that he 



The Invasion of Bengal by Akher. 91 

changed the name of that city into Jennctahad, or the 
city of Paradise, and spent in it * three important 
months in luxurious gratifications.' The dread of the 
Mogul name was then so great to the enervated people 
of Bengal, that Shere Shah fied on the approach of 
Hoomayoon, the gates of Gour were thrown open to him 
by the inhabitants, and Bengalee mothers, abbreviating 
his name into Sooma^ ever afterwards made use of it to 
awe their children into silence and sleep. 

It is now just three hundred years when Gour was 
abandoned for its unhealthiness, and the capital was re- 
moved to Tondah. Then happened the invasion of 
Bengal by Akber under the command of Monaim Khan, 
and the wars waged at that period between the Moguls 
and Patans are yet mimicked in the Mongal — Patau 
game that form the diversion of the women of Bengal 
to exercise their martial propensities, albeit the wives 
and daughters of the most un warlike nation upon earth, 
in the moves and manoeuvres of a Mogul or Patan 
general. Monaim Khan had heard much of the ancient 
and deserted city of Gour. He went to view it, and was so 
much delighted with the situation, and its many princely 
edifices, that he resolved to make it the seat of Govern- 
ment again, and removed there with all his troops and 
officers from Tondah. But * whether owing to the 
dampness of the soil, the badness of the water, or the 
corrupted state of the air, a pestilence very shortly broke 
out amongst the troops and inhabitants. Thousands 
died every day ; and the living, tired of burying the 
dead, threw them into the river, without distinction of 



92 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Hindoo or Mahomedan. The governor became sensible 
of his error, but it was too late. He was himself seized 
with the contagion, and at the end of ten days bade 
adieu to this transitory world.' This was in the year 
1575, from which commenced the ruin of Gour. 

' No part of the site of ancient Gour,' says Rennel, 
' is nearer to the present bank of the Ganges than four 
miles and a half ; and some parts of it, which were ori- 
ginally washed by that river, are now twelve miles from 
it. However, a small stream, that communicates with 
the Ganges, now runs by its west side, and is navigable 
during the rainy season. On the east side, and in some 
places within two miles, it has the Mahananda river, 
which is always navigable, and communicates also with 
the Ganges. Taking the extent of the ruins of Gour at 
the most reasonable calculation, it is not less than fifteen 
miles in length (extending along the old bank of the 
Ganges), and from two to three in breadth. Several 
villages stand on part of its site, the remainder is 
covered with thick forests, the habitations of tigers and 
other beasts of prey ; or become arable land whose soil 
is chiefly composed of brick-dust. The principal ruins 
are a mosque lined with black marble, elaborately 
wrought; and two gates of the citadel, which are 
strikingly grand and lofty. These fabrics, and some few 
others, appear to owe tlieir duration to the nature of 
their materials, which are less marketable, and more 
difficult to separate, than those of the ordinary brick 
buildings, which have been, and continue to be, an 
article of merchandise, and are transported to Moorshc- 



Tke site of Gour a IVilderness, 93 

dabad, Malda, and other places, for the purpose of build- 
ing. These bricks are of the most solid texture of any 
I ever saw ; and have preserved the sharpness of their 
edges, and smoothness of their surfaces, through a series 
of ages. The situation of Gour was highly suitable for 
the capital of Bengal and Behar, as united under one 
government : being nearly centrical with respect to the 
populous parts of those provinces ; and near the junction 
of the principal rivers that compose that extraordinary 
inland navigation, for which these provinces are famed; 
and, moreover, secured by the Ganges and other rivers, 
on the only quarter from which Bengal has any cause 
for apprehension.' 

The axe and the plough have been at work during 
the last fifty years to reclaim the jungle, the forest, and 
wastes of India. But it is doubtful whether they shall 
ever be applied to clear the wilderness that has formed 
on ihQ site of Gour, and attracts only sportsmen for 
tiger-bagging and pig-sticking. The antiquary cannot 
be expected to carry on his researches amid the haunt 
of wild beasts and snakes — in the abode of pestilence and 
death. 

* Where giant weeds a passage scarce allow 
To halls deserted, portals gaping wide : ' 

though few spots can be more interesting than the one 
on which stand the hoary and dear ruins of the magni- 
ficent monuments of Gour. The author of the Ryaz 
AssulateeHy written in 1787-8, took considerable pains to 
ascertain his dates by visiting Gour, and reading the 
inscriptions on the different buildings. Sir Charles 



94 Travels of a Hindoo. 

Wilkin 8, Librarian to the East India Company,, pub- 
Kshed a set of engravings of the ruins of Gour. There 
is also a correct plan of the city deposited among the 
records of the India House. Of late, the ruins of Gour 
were shown in a photographic exhibition. 

Three causes — the removal of the capital, the deser- 
tion of its old bed by the Ganges, and the unwholesome- 
ness of the region — have contributed to turn Gour into 
a wilderness. ' It is impossible to pass it,' says Heber, 
* without recollecting that what Gour is, Calcutta may 
any day become, unless the river in its fresh channel 
should assume a fatal direction, and sweep in its new 
track our churches, markets, and palaces (by the way of 
the Loll Diggy and the Ballighaut), to that Salt Water 
Lake which seems its natural estuary.' This is a sad 
homily for our house-owners and municipal debenture- 
holders. 



95 



CHAPTER II. 

Far below Gour, but still high in repute, is Rajmahaly 
wbicli possesses an interest derived from many historical 
recollections and * storied associations.' The poet in his 
ardour may say — 

* Hail, stranger, hail ! whose eye shall here survey, 
The path of time, where ruin marks his way ; ' 

but there is nothing to realize preconceived notions. 
The city, founded by Rajah Maun Sing and adorned by 
Sultan Shooja, which at one time rivalled Delhi in 
splendour and luxury, and rung witb * the melody of the 
flageolet and tambourine,' is now a dismal jungle filled 
with the moans of the midnight bird and the shrill 
cries of the jackal. Up to a recent day there were many 
vestiges of the works of Raja Maun, of the palace of 
Sultan Shooja, of tbe stone- roofed and deUcately-carved 
balcony described by Bishop Heber as * still retaining 
traces of gilding and Arabic inscriptions,' and of 
mosques, gateways, and other buildings. They have 
all disappeared — many of them having been blasted 
by gunpowder to make room for the Railway works. 
The place has scarcely any interest for the traveller, 
and forms only wretched knots of huts dispersed at 



()6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

considerable and inconvenient distances from each 
other. The only recommendation of the town is its 
pretty situation upon a high, steep bank, from which 
the Himalayas are visible on a clear morning, and 
below which the Ganges, ' as if incensed at being 
obliged to make a circuit round the barrier of the 
hills,' sweeps with great violence, and, chafing in 
wrath, sometimes rends away several acres of ground. 
The beautiful, blue, and woody hills are about five miles 
inland. 

It was on the opposite shore to Rajmahal, that Suraja- 
u-Dowla happened to be detected and seized by his ene- 
mies. In his flight from Moorshedabad towards Patna, 
he became oppressed with hunger, and landed at the 
cell of a poor Mahomedan dervish on the bank of the 
river opposite to Rajmahal. Thirteen months before 
had this dervish been deprived of his ears by the order 
of the fugitive tyrant, and he had good reason to re- 
member his person, and recognize him in his disguise. 
Receiving his guests courteously, and setting about to 
prepare a dish of kicheery for them, he privately sent 
off a man across the river, and leading a brother of 
Meer Jaffer to the fugitive's hiding-place, had him 
seized and conveyed to Moorshedabad to revenge the 
loss of his ears. 

From Rajmahal, we carry the reader on board the 
India General Steam Navigation Company's steamer 
Agra with the flat Chumbul, It was on a bright sunny 
afternoon that we turned our back upon the desolate 
city of Rajmahal, and when we were fairly embarked 



Sahibgunge, — Secreegiilly . — Terriagurry Pass, 97 

upon the wide expanse of water, tlie Vessel parted the 
foaming waves with her bow, and rode triumphantly 
upon them * like a thing of life.' It is something to 
experience the pleasures of dashing up the classic 
waters of the Ganges in a steam-boat at the rate of 
four miles an hour, out-blustering the winds and waves, 
not caring a nonce for the gods presiding over them. 
In about two hours we passed by Caragola^ opposite to 
which is Sahibgunge, sprung into a picturesque town in 
a wild moorland. Next we approached the Mootee 
Jliurna waterfall, which is seen tumbling down the 
moimtain in beautiful cascades. Towards evening we 
were moving close to Secreegully, and high on the sum- 
mit of the rocky eminence gleamed the white tomb of 
the Mussulman saint and warrior. * The tomb,' says 
Heber, ' is well worth the trouble of climbing the hill. 
It stands on a platform of rock, surrounded by a 
battlemented wall, with a gate very prettily orna- 
mented, and rock benches all round to sit or pray on. 
The chamber of the tomb is square, with a dome roof, 
very neatly built, covered with excellent chunam, 
which, though three hundred years old, remains en- 
tire, and having within it a carved stone mound, like 
the hillocks in an English churchyard, where sleeps the 
scourge of the idolaters.^ 

The famous Terriagurry Pass is better seen from the 
train, which runs past by the foot of the slate-built fort 
that formerly guarded the entrance. The narrow pass, 
about a quarter of a mile wide, is flanked by two isolated 

cliffs that afford a commanding position from their lofty, 
vou I. 7 



98 Travels of a Hindoo. 

peaked heights,* to keep an enemy at bay from ap- 
proaching the wooded valleys and narrow defiles of the 
country. Probably, the fortifications, seen in ruins on 
the southern clifi*, were first erected by Shere Shah, and 
then repaired by Sultan Shooja, when they had re- 
spectively to defend themselves — the one, from the 
approach of Hoomayoon, and the other from that of 
Meer Jumla. There may exist inscriptions, and local 
inquiries on the spot ought to settle the truth. Passing 
Terriagurry, one falls into the Anga of ancient Hindoo 
geography. The stupendous wall of rocks, the de- 
tached cliffs, the sloping dales, the warm dry soil, the 
stouter and healthier cattle, and a more manly-looking 
race — proclaim it to be a different country from that of 
Bengal. 

It was near simset, and the chain of hills stood full 
in sight, rising in lofty ranks. High above the rest 
towered Peer-Pointee, and projected far in a promontory 
into the bed of the river. Many centuries before 
Father or St Pointee had chosen this favoured spot for 
his abode, had the banks of the Ganges here been 
covered with shrines, altars, and temples of the Bud- 
dhists, and the remains of these antiquities form great 
curiosities for the traveller. The Pattur-ghatta cave, 
with its sculptures, is a remarkable object for sight- 
seeing. Long had a tradition been current, that a 
certain Rajah had desired to explore it, and set out 
with an immense suite, 100,000 torch- bearers, and 
100,000 measures of oil, but never returned. The in- 
terminable cave of native imagination has been ex- 



Colgong, — Bhagu Ipore, 99 

plored, and found to be not more than 136 feet long, 
and 24 broad. It has no pillar or beam to support its 
roof. 

The Mussulman saint after whom Peer-Pointee is 
now called, lies buried here. His tomb stands on a little 
cliff above the river, overhung by some fine bamboos. 

Next is Colgong, a pretty and pleasant spot. Here, 
in the bed of the river, are seen three very picturesque 
rocks. In vulgar Hindoo tradition, they are supposed 
to have formed the hearth of Bheema Pandava. This 
is a difiicult place to navigate for its strong eddies 
and rapids, and, under the pressure of a little more 
steam, the vessel proceeded like a bellowing, blowing, 
and blustering monster, at which Bheema would 
have been scared to take to his heels, leaving his 
savoury pot of kicheery. In passing, we found the rocks 
to consist of huge boulders piled one upon another, 
and tufted with trees growing in their clefts. The 
westernmost one is the largest, and is inhabited by a 
faqueer. 

Eighteen miles higher up is Bhagulporey the capital 
of the ancient Angas, and the Champa of our old 
geography. The Buddhists are said to have taken 
possession of it prior to the Christian era, and, most 
probably, to have retained it till the downfall of their 
religion in the eleventh century. Hwen Thsang speaks 
of it in his itinerary, and alludes to the * ruins of several 
monasteries in its neighbourhood.' But though of such 
great antiquity, and promising an interesting field for 
observation, it has scarcely any curiosities for the tra- 



lOO Travels of a Hindoo. 

veller. The town is situated in a low, open valley, 
wooded with a super- abundance of trees and vegetation, 
the putrefaction of which engenders the malaria that is 
the cause of its unhealthiness. Much of its salubrity is 
owing also to the impregnation of the soil with saline 
matter. On a subsequent occasion, when we had put 
up here in a bungalow, we found the ground-floor to be 
as moist and damp as in Calcutta. The air was heavy, 
and had no dryness even in November. The excess of 
vegetation closing the prospects on all sides, made the 
spirits gloomy, and to lose all their elasticity. Bishop 
Heber says, the place is very much infested by cobras 
— well may they luxuriate in such a dark jungly land. 
Nothing but mean huts scattered at places, and a few 
decayed mosques, make up the features of the native 
portion of the town. 

The most curious of all objects at Baghulpore are 
two ancient Round ToicerSy each about seventy feet 
high. Nobody now remembers anything about them, 
and the age and object of their erection are matters in- 
volved in the deepest obscurity. From their * close 
resemblance to the pyrethra so common in Affghanistan 
and elsewhere,^ they are supposed to be * Buddhist 
monuments of yore.' They happen to bo so little 
known, that, on inquiring about them from a Baboo, 
resident hero for twenty years, he answered that he 
was not aware of their existence. 

Cleveland's Monuments. — There are two of them. 
The one erected by the Hindoos is in the form of a pa- 
goda, in a pretty situation by the-river side. It is a 



Cleveland's Monuments, loi 



tribute of Hindoo gratitude to commemorate the good- 
ness and generosity of their benefactor. The other one 
was erected by Government to perpetuate the memory 
of his meritorious services. Upon that monument is 
the following inscription, remarkable for truths de- 
serving the widest publicity : — 

TO THE MEMORY OF AUGUSTUS CLEVELAND, ESQ. 

Late Collector of the districts of Bhagulpore and liajmahal. 

Who, without bloodshed or the terrors of authority', 
Employing only the means of conciliation, confidence, and benevolence. 

Attempted and accomplished 
The entire subjection of the lawless and savage inhabitants of the 

Jungleterr}' of Rajmahal, 
Who had long infested the neighbouring lands by their predatory 

incursions, 

Inspired them with a taste for the arts of civilized life, 

And attached them to the British Government by a conquest over 

their minds — 
The most permanent, as the most rational mode of dominion. 

THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AND COUNCIL OF BENGAL, 

In honour of his character, and for example to others, 
Have ordered this monument to be erected. 
He departed this life on the 13th day of January — 1784, aged 29. 

It is particularly remarkable, that the Government 
which endorsed the opinion that a conquest over the 
mind is the most permanent, as icell as the most rational, 
mode of dominion, should have undertaken to depose 
Cheyte Sing, rob the Begums of Oude, and ravage the 
fair province of Rohilcund. 

Very few men are aware that the school first set up 
by Mr Cleveland for the education of the hill-people 
has produced a Santhal gentleman, who has embraced 
Christianity, connected himself by marriage in a re- 
spectable familj^ is brother-in-law to a gentleman of 



102 Travels of a Hindoo. 

the Calcutta bar, and holds a respectable post under 
Government at Bhagulpore. 

The Mount Mandar, celebrated in the Pouranic 
legends for the churning of the ocean, lies southward 
of Bhagulpore. It is remarkable as being of granite, 
whilst all 'the other hills in the neighbourhood are 
of limestone. Originally, it was a seat of Buddhist 
worship, and a place of Buddhist pilgrimage, when 
these wild and uninhabited parts probably formed 
populous and flourishing districts. This was, we 
think, when Buddhist kings reigned in Magadha and 
Gour. On the downfall of Buddhism, Mandar fell 
into the hands of the Shivites, and became a seat 
of their god so as to rival Benares, and form, as the 
Xasikhund states, a second KaiJasa. The legend of 
the churning of the ocean is an interpolation in the 
Mahabharat, which evidently refers to the contes't be- 
tween the Brahmins (soors) and the Buddhists (asoors) 
— the great serpent Vasookee — alluding to the sect of 
the Nagas, 

Jangerah aiid Siilfangung. — Sailing up from Bhagul- 
pore, * the first object of interest which arrests the 
attention of the traveller is a singular mass of granite 
towering abruptly to the height of about a hundred 
feet from the bed of the river. Its natural beauty 
and romantic situation have long since dedicated it 
to the service of religion ; and Jangeerah, the name 
of the rock in question, has been associated with many 
a tale of love and arms.' The *Fakeerof Jangeerah' is 
the subject of a poem by that gifted East Indian, 51 r 



Jangerah and Sultangung. 103 

Derozio, who first planted the seed of reform in the 
Hindoo mind, and ushered into existence the class now 
known under the designation of Young Bengal, 

The rock is separated from the mainland by a dis- 
tance of about a hundred yards, and stands facing the 
mart of Sultangung. Crowning the top is *a small 
stone temple, which is visible from a great distance, 
and serves as a beacon tower to the mariner. The pre- 
siding deity of this sanctuary is named Gaibinatha, a 
form of Siva. The temple bears no inscription, and 
from its make and appearance does not seem to be more 
than two or three centuries old.' The surface of the 
rock is carved in many bas-relief figures of the Pouranic 
gods. But there are older Buddhist figures, that 
* occupying more centrical positions than the Hindoo 
ones, and appearing to be more worn than the latter, 
afford conclusive evidence of the place having been 
originally a Buddhist sanctuary, which the Brahmins 
appropriated to themselves since the downfall of Bud- 
dhism.' 

It is but half a mile to Jangeerah from the Railway 
station of Sultangung. ' The space between the mart 
and the Railway station,' observes Baboo Rajcndro Lalla 
Mitra, ' forms a quadrangle of 1200 feet by 800. It 
seems never to have been under much cultivation, and 
is covered by the dehris of old buildings, the foundations 
of which have lately been excavated for ballast for the 
Railway.' The high grassy knoll perched with a neat 
bungalow, that moots the eye of the passer-by in the 
train, is but a ridge of rubbish lying at the south-cast 



104 Travels of a Hindoo, 

corner of the quadrangle. There have been discovered 
here chambers, and courtyards, and halls, and walls 
having ' a thick coating of sand and stucco such as are 
to be seen in modern Indian houses,' and floors *made 
of concrete and stucco, and painted over in fresco of a 
light ochrous colour,' and ' the foundation and the side 
pillars of a large gateway :' from all which the spot is 
supposed to have been the site of * a large Buddhist 
monastery or Vihara, such as at one time existed at 
Samath, Sanchi, Buddha- Gya, Manikyala, and other 
places, and at its four corners had four chapels for the 
use of the resident monks.' The thick, large-sized 
bricks employed in the construction of the building, 
have been found to be of the kind that * was in use for 
upwards of seven hundred years down to the fifth or 
sixth century of the Christian era.' This is a proof of 
the antiquity of the Vihara at least prior to the last- 
mentioned centuries. That it was much older beyond 
that period is satisfactorily proved by the * inscriptions 
on the minor figures, in the Gupta character of the 
third and fourth century, which show that the Vihara, 
with its chief lares and penafes, had been established a 
considerable period before that time, probably at the 
beginning of the Christian era, or even earlier.' 

No doubt remains as to the Vihara from the dis- 
covery of a colossal figure of Buddha, full seven feet high, 
of the tall North Indian and not the squat Bhot type, 
that seems to have been the principal object of worship. 
* The figure is erect^ standing in the attitude of deliver- 
ing a lecture. The right hand is lifted in the act of 



Colossal Figure oj Buddha, 105 



exhortation ; the left holds the hem of a large sheet of 
cloth which is loosely thrown over the body. Both 
hands bear the impress of a lotus, the emblem, accord- 
ing to Indian chiromancy, of universal supremacy, and 
as such is always met with on the hands of Vishnu, 
Brahma, and some other Hindoo divinities. The ears 
are pendulous and bored, and the hair on the head dis- 
posed in curled buttons in the way they are usually 
represented on Burmese figures, and not very unlike 
the buttons on the heads of some of the Nineveh bas- 
reliefs. The lips are thin, and the face, though more 
rounded than oval, is not remarkable for any promi- 
nence of the cheek-bone. On the forehead there is a 
circular tilak or auspicious mark. The material is a 
very pure copper cast in two layers, the inner one in 
segments on an earthen mould, and held together by 
iron bands now very much worn down by rust ; the 
outer layer of the copper has also oxidized in difierent 
places and become quite spongy. The casting of the 
face down to the breast, w^as efiected in one piece ; the 
lower parts down to the knee in another ; and then the 
legs, feet, hands, and back in several pieces. A hole 
has been bored through the breast, and chips have 
been knocked off from other parts of the body since the 
exhimiation of the figure, evidently with a view to 
ascertain if it did not contain hidden treasure, such as 
is said to have beeu found by Mahmood in the belly of 
the famous idol of Somnauth, but it has led to the dis- 
covery of nothing beyond the mould on which the 
figure had been cast. The substance of this mould 



io6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

looks like a friable cinder. Originally it consisted of a 
mixture of sand, clay, charcoal, and paddy husk, of the last 
of which traces are still visible under the microscope.'* 

Minor figures, carved in basalt, and in style and at- 
titude resembling the copper figure, have also been 
discovered, with the Buddhist creed ' Ye dharmahetu^ 
&c., engraved in the Gupta character on their pedestals. 
The remains of a mud fort, usually attached to a Bud- 
dhist monastery for its protection and security, are also 
found at a distance of about three quarters of a mile 
— forming ' a square mound of about 400 yards on each 
side, raised to the height of about 20 feet from the plain, 
and now the site of an indigo factory. To the south of 
it there is a large tank which yielded the earth of 
which the mound was formed.' Abundance of * little 
fictile bell-shaped structures called chaityaSy have also 
turned out with inscriptions in the Kiitila type. This 
character had a long range of four centuries, from 
the 8th to the 11th, and the monuments on which 
it is found may fairly be concluded to have existed at 
least down to the 7th, 8th, or even the 9th or 10th 
century. Though not spoken of by Fa Hian or Hwen 
Thsang, the destruction of the Vihara may be supposed 
to have taken place on the triumph of Brahminism over 
Buddhism, or otherwise no reason can be assigned for 
the iconoclastic vengeance which could not have been 
inflicted unless by the ruthless hands of adverse sec- 
tarians. 

* * On the Buddhist Remains of Sultangung.' By Baboo Rajendra 
Lalla Mittra. 



Jumalpore. — Monghyr, 107 

By rail it is but an hour's journey from Sultangung 
to Jamalpore, The tunnel here, bored through the 
obdurate rock for nearly half a mile, is such a prodigious 
work of human labour and skill, as, in the language of 
Brahminic hyperbole, would have been represented to 
have been perforated by the Gandiva of Arjoona for a 
passage into the country of the Angas, By river it 
took us half a day to get up to Monghyr^ passing the 
beautiful Kurruckpoor hills, on a peak of which was 
the hermitage of Rishsyasringha Muni, and where a 
mela is annually held in honour of his memory. If ear 
one of the low rocks projecting into the river, are 
the well-known hot-springs of Seefakoond, famous in 
Hindoo legends for being the spot where Seeta under- 
went the ordeal of fire to prove her untainted chastity 
from the violence of Ravana. 

Monghyr is a pretty town in a charming green 
valley, with the broad river washing it on two sides and 
the hills in the back- ground. The ancient Hindoos had 
an eye for all beautiful and advantageous localities, and 
such a romantic and commanding position as Monghyr 
has, could scarcely have been left unoccupied by them. 
In the absence of positive information, this is an in- 
direct argument in favour of the antiquity of the place, 
originally called Iludgulpoor, It was on a very good 
day that we happened to arrive at Monghyr, where the 
anchorage ghaut presented a lively and busy scene of 
preparations for the reception of Lord Canning, then 
on his vice- regal tour to the Upper Provinces, with all 
the means and appliances at the disposal of a provincial 



io8 Travels of a Hindoo. 

town. The steepy bank had been smoothed into an 
easy slope, and spread with a crimson cloth for a land- 
ing place The Civil authorities and Railway officers of 
the station lay waiting upon the shore, while a little 
knot or crowd had formed itself to witness a sight which 
it seldom falls to their lot to enjoy. Our steamer had 
scarcely anchored to coal for half an hour, before the 
Governor- General's barge appeared in sight, and slowly 
steaming up came off town, and dropped its anchors in 
the mid- stream. The Agra immediately hoisted up its 
flag in honour, and some of the authorities started in 
their boats to offer their welcome to the Viceroy. He 
landed in a few minutes amidst no booming of guns, or 
presentment of arms, but simply the nods and salaams 
of the assembled multitude. His principal object in 
honouring this town with a visit was, we were told, to 
inspect the Jumalpore tunnel. 

In Monghyr there are no ancient buildings, or ruins 
of them, to render it a place of antiquarian interest. 
The only object to detain the traveller is its fort, which 
stands on a rocky promontory, and covers a large 
extent of ground, measuring 4000 feet in length by 
3500 in breadth. On three sides the ramparts are 
defended by a wide and deep moat, filled only during 
the rains, and on the fourth is the Ganges, which flows 
here with strong eddies and currents, and forms one of 
the difficult passages for navigation. There are rocks 
in the bed of the stream against which the waters beat 
in regular surges, and it is pleasant to see them break 
immediately beneath your feet from the bastion above. 



Fort and other Buildings of Mongliijr. 109 

The fort is now dismantled, and merely surrounded 
with high stone walls, having four gateways, the 
principal of which is called the Lall Duncaza, Upon 
two or three slabs of the side pillars of the eastern 
gateway, we observed some small, worn-out bas-relief 
Buddhistic figures, from which it was evident that they 
had once belonged to a Buddhist temple standing at 
this town in a former age, and which afforded a proof 
of its antiquity. Inside the enclosure *is an ample 
plain of fine turf, dotted with a few trees, and two or 
three noble tanks, the largest covering a couple of 
acres ' — a state of things just the same as seen by 
Heber forty years ago. Two high grassy knolls are 
enclosed within the rampart, * occupying two opposite 
angles of the fort, which is an irregular square with 
twelve bastions.' On one of these eminences is a hand- 
some house, originally built for the military com- 
mander of the district, but now occupied by the Civil 
Judge of the station. There is in the fort a beautiful 
mosque, built of black marble. The palace of Sultan 
Soojah is traced in the altered building that is now oc- 
cupied as the shop of Thomas and Co., and where we 
saw a Mussulman gent come and buy an English spell- 
ing-book. This is the best located of all buildings in 
Monghyr. Near it was shown to us the ruins of a vast 
well, and a subterranean way communicating with the 
Ganges, through which the Begums used to go to the 
river for ablutions. The masonry works of the passage 
are in a ruinous state, and grown over with jungles. 
The little stone-ghaut is yet in a fair condition. 



no Travels of a Hindoo, 



Monghyr is a favourite town to old, invalided mili- 
tary pensioners and their families, who enjoy here a 
climate and picturesque scenery that reconcile them to 
a life of exile, and who at last repose in the * small but 
neat burial-ground, fenced in with a low wall, and 
crammed full of obelisk tombs/ The town is large 
enough and well kept up, having pretty roads and 
streets with a moderate population. The river- side 
face of the native town has an imposing appearance 
with its high stone-ghauts, temples, and shady groves 
of ancient trees. 'Though all the houses are small,' 
says Heber, * there are many of them with an upper 
story, and the roofs, instead of the flat terrace or thatch, 
which are the only alternations in Bengal, are generally 
sloping, with red tiles^ having little earthenware orna- 
ments on their gables. The shops are numerous, and I 
was surprised at the neatness of the kettles, tea-trays, 
guns, pistols, toasting-forks, cutlery, and other things of 
the sort which may be procured in this tiny Birming- 
ham. I found afterwards that this place had been 
from very early antiquity celebrated for its smiths, 
who derived their art from the Hindoo Vulcan, who 
had been solemnly worshipped, and is supposed to 
have had a workshop here.' In simple language, the 
mythologic story of the Bishop has a reference to that 
iron-mining in the neighbourhood, which naturally 
made Monghyr a manufacturing town of hard- ware ; 
but, as such, it has declined much from its former 
prosperity, and is now reputed for its table dish-mats, 
straw hand-punkahs, and baskets of various patterns. 



Paliputra. 1 1 1 

ladies' handsome light wooden, jet-black polished neck- 
laces and bracelets, children's painted wooden toys, and 
strong palm- wood polished sticks and bamboo canes. 
Not more than twenty-five years ago, the agriculturists 
here were so simple as to sell their produce in heaps 
and not by weight, when many mahajuns made their 
fortunes. Ghee could be had at ten rupees the maund, 
that now hardly sells below thirty. Many hill-women 
and their children are observed in this town. The 
great tutelary goddess of Monghyr is Chimdee Mata, an 
emblem of Kali, lying in a desolate part of the town 
that has been abandoned. Referring to the aquatic 
habits of the low people here, Heber relates the in- 
stance of *a pretty young country-woman ducking 
under water for so long a time that he began to despair 
of her re-appearance.' We observed two men come 
across from the other shore swimming in a standing 
posture, with little bundles of reeds under their arm- 
pits, and pails of milk upon their heads. Herds of 
cattle also cross over with their keepers to browse on 
the marshy islets in the river. 

Passing Monghyr, we mention a place that has 
come to our knowledge under the name of Paliputra. 
It is a little insignificant village where dealers go to 
buy grain from first hands. Situated nearly a hundred 
miles below Patna, the mere coincidence of its name 
can hardly justify us to assimie its identity with 
Palibothra. 

From Jumalpore to Luckeeserai and the other sta- 
tions, the rail takes us through a hilly country dis- 



112 Travels of a Hindoo. 

closing a succession of beautiful prospects. In pro- 
ceeding up the river, Soorjagurrah, Bar, and Futwa 
occur as interesting places, for the highly cultivated 
state of the country in which they are situated, and for 
the beauty and extent of the woods of palm and other 
fruit-trees, stretching for several miles in succession, 
and offering a prospect of the most pleasing sylvan 
scenery. It is curious to observe the practice of plant- 
ing palms in the hollows of the trunks of decayed 
peepul trees, first met with in the gardens on this side 
of Bhaugulpore. 

It was a calm and bright evening, and the last hues 
of sunset had left a soft stain of crimson on the river, 
when we slowly approached and anchored off the old 
and far-famed town of Patna. From on board the 
steamer, the town rose full in sight on a steep pre- 
cipitous bank, and opened upon our eager eyes with its 
high stone- ghauts, its various buildings half shadowed 
by trees and half abutting on the river, its remains of 
old walls, towers, and bastions, and its multitude of 
trading vessels, all combining to make up a striking 
frontage, that stretched along the river till it was lost 
in the murky distance. The principal ghaut, before 
which the steamer had moored, looked most picturesque, 
with lofty buildings and shrines peeping through the 
branches of hoary banians and peepuls, and there were 
groups of men in graceful drapery congregated to wit- 
ness the throwing of the Jugodhatri into the waters, 
which added considerably to the liveliness of the scene. 

Few places in India are so old, and recall to mind 



Patna, — its ancient Names, 113 

so many associations, as the Pataliputra of the Hindoos, 
the Palihothra of the Greeks, and the Potolitse of the 
Chinese, all referring to the city which is known in our 
day under the name of Patna. The name of Patali- 
putra does not occur either in Menu or the Mahabharat, 
the capital of ancient Magadha having in those ages 
been Rajgriha. It was in the middle of the sixth 
century before Christ that Ajatsutra founded the city 
of Pataliputra. ' This prince,' says Lassen, ^ appears 
to have long had the intention of conquering Vasali ; * 
for it is recorded that his two ministers, Sunitha and 
Vasyankara, founded in the village of Patali a fortress 
against the Vriggi ; this took place a short time before 
the death of Buddha. It is, no doubt, the place where 
the town Patali -putra, afterwards so famous, arose ; its 
situation is distinctly defined by the circumstance, that 
Buddha on his tour from Nalanda to Vaisali came to 
that place.^ Under its ancient name of Pataliputra, the 
place stands before the eyes of the modern traveller as 
the capital of the Nandas, of Chandra- Gupta, and of 
Asoca ; as the scene where were played those outwit- 
ting Machiavellian policies between Rakshasa and Cha- 
nakya, which form the subject of the drama of Mudra 
Rakshasa, where Megasthenes had arrived on an em- 
bassy from Seleucus and resided for many years, leaving 
behind a record that possesses no ordinary claims upon 
our attention ; whence Asoca issued his famous edicts 
about Buddhism, and sent missionaries to preach in 

* Identified by General Cunningham with the modem Besarh, 20 
miles north of Hajipoor. 

VOL. I. 8 



114 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Egypt, Syria, and Greece ; and whence vessels plied to 
Ceylon in a fortnight, and carried Mahindra with a 
branch of the sacred peepul tree of Buddha. It is from 
the writings of Megasthenes that we learn that ^ Pali- 
bothra was eight miles long and one and a half broad, 
defended by a deep ditch and a high rampart, with 570 
towers, and 64 gates' — a state of grandeur of which 
not a tithe is possessed by the present city. 

Much doubt had prevailed for a long time as to the 
site of Palibothra, of which such a splendid account 
had been left behind by the Greeks. Dr Spry states 
*that as many cities have been brought forward by 
modern writers to prefer their claims to the Palibothra 
of India, as of old contested for the birth-place of 
Homer.' There was D'Anville who identified it with 
Allahabad, Wilford with Rajmahal, and Franklin with 
Bhaugulpore : until, at last, the Erranoboas of Arrian 
was found to correspond with the Hiraneyahah, or the 
Soane ; the name of Pataliputra turned out in Hindoo 
writings to accord with that of Palibothra, and the 
travels of Fa Hian and Hwen Thsang shed a light on 
the question to leave no more doubt as to the identity 
of the place. In the drama of Mudra Rakshasa, ' one 
of the characters describes the trampling down of the 
banks of the Soane, as the army approaches to Patali- 
putra/ 

Though the Hindoo dramatist has laid many of his 
scenes at Pataliputra, little, however, can be gleaned 
from him as to the topography of that ancient city. 
Besides, we think his accounts to refer to an after- 



Ancient state of Patna. 115 

period — if not to his own age, at least to the age of the 
Gupta kings in the second and third centuries, when, 
probably, it acquired the poetic appellation of Kusoo- 
mapur, rendered by the Chinese into Kia-so-ino-polu, 
This is a name which it must have derived from the 
beauty of the numerous fields, gardens, and groves by 
which the place seems to have been surrounded in all 
ages. The Praticedaha or informers of Asoca were to 
bring him intelligence even when he was * promenad- 
ing in his garden.' There is a passage in the drama 
alluded to above, where Rakshasa repeats the following 
lines : — 

* These gardens mark the city's pleasant confines, 
And oft were honoured by my sovereign's presence.' 

In the present day, there is no end of topes and orchards 
and gardens surrounding Patna, and forming the sub- 
urban retreats of its inhabitants. 

Hwen Thsang next treats us with an account of 
Patna in the seventh century. The court of the kings 
of Magadha, remarked by Wilford * as one of the most 
brilliant that ever existed,' had then lost much of its 
splendour. The lord paramountcy of the Mauryas and 
Guptas had become extinct, and their sovereignty 
broken up. Pataliputra then acknowledged the su- 
premacy of Harsha Vardhana, and its Rajah was an 
attendant tributary in the triumphal procession of that 
monarch from Patna to Kanouge. The city then 
abounded with many Buddhist temples and monasterie s 
but the monks are represented as having fallen off in 
practice from the rigorous system enjoined to them, 



ii6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

and merged into the laity, and * living with the here- 
tics ' and * no better than they/ 

In the time of the Mussulman conquest, the capital 
of Behar is said to have been removed to the town of 
that name, and its Rajah to have become so degenerated 
as to abscond from his capital, leaving it destitute, to 
be taken by * a detachment of two hundred men, who 
put a number of the unopposing Brahmins to the sword, 
and plundered all the inhabitants/ It is not known 
when the removal of the capital to Behar had taken 
place. Probably it happened on the ascendancy of the 
Rahtores at Kannouje, or of the Senas at Gour. But 
no doubt is to be entertained as to that removal having 
been the cause which first led to the decline of Patna, 
and to its gradual insignificance and obscurity, owing 
to which it is not mentioned in the early years of Ma- 
homedan history. 

As described by Ralph Fitch, Patna was in the end 
of the sixteenth century *a large city, but contained 
only houses of earth and straw. The country was much 
infested by robbers, wandering like the Arabians from 
place to place. The people were greatly imposed upon 
by idle persons assuming the appearance of sanctity. 
One of these sat asleep on horseback in the market- 
place, while the crowd came and reverentially touched 
his feet. They thought him a great man, but — sure he 
was a lazy lubber — I left him there sleeping.' 

Modern Patna has an imposing appearance from 
the river. But inside the walls, the town is disgust- 
ing, disagreeable, and mean. The huts and houses are 



Modern Patna. T17 



unsightly and slovenly. The passages are narrow, 
crooked, and irregular, *so as to render a passage 
through them on an elephant or in a palankeen always 
diflB-Cult, and often impracticable/ There is only one 
street tolerably wide, that runs from the eastern to the 
western gate, but it is by no means straight nor regu- 
larly built. In the middle of the town is a long nar- 
row sheet of water, which, as it dries up, becomes ex- 
ceedingly dirty, offensive, and malarious. The suburbs 
are built in a straggling and ill-defined manner, and 
they are bare and thin of population. The country 
here is low and flooded during the rains, and being 
thickly planted, is the source of great unhealthiness to 
the town. Ancient Pataliputra had been eight miles 
long and two and a half broad. Modern Patna is little 
more than a mile from east to west, and three-quarters 
of a mile from north to south — though the inhabitants 
pretend it to extend nearly nine miles along the banks 
of the Ganges from Jaffer Khan's garden to Bankipore. 
Of the towers and gateways spoken of by Megasthenes, 
or of the lofty pillars, columns, and turrets of the 
Suganga palace mentioned by the Hindoo dramatist, 
not a trace exists surviving the ravages of time and 
war. There is no building in Patna now which is two 
himdred years old. Chanakya's house with * old walls, 
from which a thatched roof projects, covered by a parcel 
of fuel stuck up to dry, and furnished with a bit of 
stone for bruising cow-dung fuel,' may easily be recog- 
nised in a squalid hut of the present day. But there 
is no lofty building from which Chandragupta may see 



ii8 Travels of a Hindoo, 



* the city decorated as suits the festival of the autumnal 
full moon.' The Buddhist shrines and temples have 
been displaced by those of Mahadeva, and Gopala, and 
Patnadevi. Instead of a Buddhist monastery seen by 
Hwen Thsang, we see now a Sikh synagogue, and Ma- 
homedan musjeeds. There are no more celebrated in 
Patna the festivals in which * sportive bands of either 
sex spread mirth and music through the echoing streets, 
and the citizens with their wives are abroad and merry- 
making/ The days are gone when Hindoo females 
showed themselves in public, but rather the streets are 
made narrow now * from jealousy to keep persons of 
rank from approaching their women/ The Mahomedan 
is now the predominating element in Patna, and a Ma- 
homedan viceroy wanted to change its name into 
Azimabad. The Mahomedans form a large part of the 
population of Patna, and a hundred thousand of them 
assemble at the Emambarah to celebrate the Mohurrum. 
From a stronghold of Buddhism, it is now a city of 
Sheiks and Syuds, to keep whom in a good humour an 
especial deputation of one of their countrjTnen was 
made in the late mutiny. Now that Delhi and Luck- 
now have ceased to be the great centres of ilahomedan 
intrigue, Patna is the only remaining place where the 
knot of Mahomedans is strong and influential. 

It is not easy to tell of what the buildings in ancient 
Pataliputra were principally constructed. In the pre- 
sent day, they are seen to be built, for the most part, 
of wood and bricks. Two-thirds of a pucka-building 
in Patna are of wood. Not only is this the material of 



Desn'iption of Palna, 119 

beams, doors, and windows, but of pillars, floors, and 
half of the walls. The booths that project into the 
street and the verandahs that overhang them, are all of 
wooden architecture. This is because timber is so 
abundant and cheap in Patna, being easily procured 
and floated down from the forests of the Terai. The 
oldest part of Patna on the river-bank is very closely 
built. The streets are overhung by the upper stories, 
and have an old pavement of stone. They are so nar- 
row that draining, clearing, and lighting them are all 
out of the question. 

No old remains, as it has been said above, exist in 
Patna, unless a lofty mound of earth, with a Mahomedan 
Durgah on its top, near the Railway station, may be 
taken as a stupa of Asoca. The oldest ruins are those 
of the fort defended by Ramnarain against the Shazada, 
and situated very advantageously on a high bank above 
the river. The citadel has only a few of its bastions, 
and nothing more. 

The only object for sight- seeing in Patna, is the monu- 
ment over the 150 Englishmen massacred in cold blood 
by Sumroo under the orders of Meer Cossim. It is a 
tall, slender column, of alternate black and yellow stone, 
that lifts its head about 30 feet high in the old English 
burial-ground at Patna. 

The trading quarters of Patna are out of the walled 
town, in the eastern suburbs, called Maroogunj, It is 
such 'a large mart, that 1700 boats of burthen have 
been counted lying here at one time.' Unless the 
rolling-stock of the Railway Companies be augmented 



I20 Travels of a Hindoo, 

to the number of boats at each of the stations, they can 
never hope to divert all the trade from the river. 
Patna is a noted manufactory of table-cloths * of any 
extent, pattern, and texture that may be ordered/ The 
Chinese have forgotten Pataliputra, and know Patna now 
for its opium. In Patna are many wealthy Hindoo 
merchants and bankers. 

Two facts came to our knowledge as peculiar to the 
inhabitants of Patna. One of them relates to the 
practice of celebrating their marriages only in the 
months of January and February. They are preferred, 
we think, for their being pleasant dry months, and this 
marriage-season has the effect of producing an import- 
ant demand in the piece-goods market for local con- 
sumption. The other fact is that no Hindoo dying at 
Patna is burnt here, but on the other shore. It may be, 
that ancient Magadha is a banned land for not having 
been included in the Puniya-bhumi of the Aryas. 

To Baiikvporef the Civil station of Patna — a distance 
of six miles. Here are the Opium Warehouses, the 
Courts of Justice, and the residences of the Europeans. 
In Bankipore is seen a high massive building, shaped 
like a dome, with two flights of steps outside to ascend 
to the top, resembling, says Heber, * the old prints of 
the Tower of Babel.' There is a circular opening at the 
top to pour in corn, and a small door at the bottom to 
take it out. The building in question was erected by 
Government in 1783, after a severe famine, as a public 
granary to keep down the price of grain, and marks the 
politico-economical knowledge of the day. It was 



Bankipore, — Gaya, 121 



' abandoned on discovery of its inefficacy, since no means 
in their hands, nor any building which they could con- 
struct, without laying on fresh taxes, would have been 
sufficient to collect or contain more than one day's pro- 
vision for the vast population of their territories/ 
Moreover, it displays such architectural blockheadism 
' as, by a refinement in absurdity, the door at the bottom 
is made to open inwards, and, consequently, when the 
granary was full, could never have been opened at all/ 
Passing up in the train, a glimpse of this remarkable 
tower may be caught by the traveller through the 
groves and orchards extending behind Bankipore. 

Near the Bankipore station, a road has branched off 
to Gai/a, six miles south of which is Boodh Gaya, famous 
for being the spot of the holy Peepul tree, under which 
Gautama, or Sakya Muni, sat for six years and obtained 
Buddha-hood. There is a temple 'more than two 
thousand years old,' in which * three complete arches 
have been observed by Baboo Rajendro Lall Mittra,' as 
affording ' a remarkable proof of the Hindoos having 
had a knowledge of the principle of the arch at a very 
early period, though the credit of it has been denied 
them by all our Anglo-Indian antiquaries/ This is the 
place to which pilgrims from China and Burmah 
travelled in former ages, and on the ruins of which has 
modern Gaya risen, supplanting the ancient Buddhapud 
by the Vishnupud of the Brahmins. 

The Uerihar-Chetra and Sonepore Races. — Took a 
boat at the ferry- ghaut of Bankipore, and set out for the 
mela. On a tongue of land formed by the junction of 



122 Travels of a Hindoo, 

two rivers, and opposite the city of Patna, stands a lofty 
white temple that glistens from afar, and greets the eye 
across the immense expanse of the waters. The sacred 
Gundhuki, that supplies the Hindoo with his silas, 
rising from the foot of the Dhawalagiri, here discharges 
its tribute to the Ganges immediately below the pagoda, 
and separates it from the town of Hajeepore on the op- 
posite bank. The confluence is famous in the Pouranic 
legends as being the spot where the Elephant and the 
Tortoise waged their wars, till carried off by Garuda in 
his talons to the forests of Noimisha. The country is 
flat, but fruitful and interesting. Fields of barley and 
wheat, fine natural meadows, profusion of groves and 
orchards, and herds of diversified cattle, make up a 
prospect delightful to the vision and mind. Through- 
out the year the shrine is little frequented by pilgrims. 
But towards the full moon of Kartick, the holy spot 
attracts immense multitudes, and a fair is held there, 
the largest perhaps in all India. The solitary fields are 
covered with sheds and tents for many an acre, and grow 
into a city of vast size and population. From a distance 
of four miles the hum of voices reached our ears as we 
sailed down the river. The mela is particularly remark- 
able for being a great cattle-fair. Cows and calves, 
ploughing oxen, cart-bullocks, and buffaloes, sell to the 
number of some thirty thousand. Not less than ten 
thousand horses change their masters. The number of 
elephants brought for sale sometimes amounts to two 
thousand. The congregation of men may be estimated 
at near two hundred thousand. The attractive part of 



A great Fair, — Dinapore, 123 

the fair consists of rows of booths extending in several 
streets, and displaying copper and brass wares, Euro- 
pean and native goods, toys, ornaments, jewellery, and 
all that would meet the necessity or luxury of a large 
part of the neighbouring population. Numerous are the 
shops for the sale of grain and sweetmeats. Near five 
hundred tents of various size and patterns are pitched 
for the accommodation of the rajahs, zemindars, and 
merchants who come to the fair, and the canvas-city 
displays a scene of great gorgeousness. They are 
splendidly illuminated at night, and thrown open to all 
descriptions of visitors. Much money is expended on 
the nautch- girls, whose dancing and songs form the 
great source of Indian entertainment. Parties of stroll- 
ing actors, dressed fantastically, ply to and fro, dancing 
and singing. The river affords one of the gayest 
spectacles of the/e^e. It is crowded with boats of all 
descriptions, fitted out with platforms and canopies, and 
lighted with variegated lamps, torches, and blue-lights. 
Upon them the guests are entertained with nautch. 
The Europeans visiting the fair add to its amusements 
by their pleasures of the turf. There is no more cere- 
mony than that of ablution on the day of the full moon, 
and a poojah to the emblem of Heri-Hara, in honour of 
whom the mela is held. 

The fair breaks up after a fortnight, and the place is 
left to its solitariness for the next twelvemonths. 

Dinapore — the military station of Patna, and distant 
from it about fourteen miles, has only its barracks and 
the bungalows usual in a cantonment. Merely a passing 



124 Travels of a Hindoo. 

view of it is enough, to allay tlie curiosity of the traveller. 
Four miles north of Dinapore is the junction of the 
Soane with the Ganges. The alterations in the course 
of the first river, and the small extent to which Patna 
has shrunk in modern times, naturally lead men to 
doubt at first the identity of that city with Palibothra. 
The vast and broad sheet of water formed by the con- 
fluence makes a grand sight, and is contemplated with 
no little pride when puny man has made the Soane 

* Tamely to endure a bridge of wondrous length/ 

the reality of which has surpassed the fictitious Setahind 
of Valmiki. 

Crossing the Soane bridge, the next place of note 
upon the rail is Arrah, situated in a fertile and well- 
cultivated country. It was at Arrah that * a handful 
of heroes defended a billiard-room against drought, and 
hunger, and cannon, and the militia of a warlike region, 
backed by three regiments of regular infantry.' 

Chiiprah, on the left bank of the Ganges, has a 
pretty situation. Tieflenthaler describes it as ' extend- 
ing half a mile along the Ganges consisting of straw- 
roofed buildings, and containing French, English, and 
Dutch factories.' Hereabouts are the principal saltpetre 
works. But England's prohibition of the export of that 
article during the Russian war, hastened the ruin of that 
trade by rousing the energy of the Continental Powers 
to shake off their dependence upon England for salt- 
petre. 

Five or six miles above Chuprah, the Ganges re- 



Chuprah. — Buxar, 1 25 



ceives the tribute of the Gograh — the Surjoo of the 
Raraayana. The junction of the two streams presents a 
noble appearance. The immense expanse raises an idea 
of the sea. Our view was limited only to a circle of 
water all round us, and we gazed upon nothing but the 
sky and water — ^the distant trees beyond the limits of the 
circle seeming like a streak in the horizon. 

Our progress had been most favourable the whole 
day. But the course of a vessel through the shoals and 
sand-banks of the Ganges, like * the course of true love,' 
never runs smooth. In nearing Buxar, the steamer 
struck ground, and kept us at a stand-still for an hour, 
until it floated by dint of hard-hawsing, and extra 
pressure of steam now and then. 

It was almost dusk when we reached and anchored 
before Buxar, and were permitted to have a mere glimpse 
of it from on board. The British power made its terri- 
torial progress in India like the Bamun Avatar of the 
Hindoos, taking long strides, and making its first step 
at Plassey, the second at Buxar, and the third almost at 
the frontiers of India. The battle No. 2nd fought here 
opened the way to Upper Hindoostan to their advance, 
and placed its fair provinces at their disposal. They 
were distributed like ' up-town lots ' in a reclamation 
speculation, and Corah, Allahabad, and the Doab were 
given away to the ex-Shazada Shah Alum, Oude to 
Shuja Dowla — while the English took in their hands 
the key of the exchequer of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. 
The fortress, occupied at the expense of nearly 5000 
lives on both sides, is still in good order, and stands 



1 26 Travels of a Hindoo, 

upon an elevated ground, whence * the view, upon a 
fine day, presents a scene infinitely gratifying to the 
senses. The eye rests on an extended plain, skirted by 
a broad winding river, chequered with exuberant fields 
of corn, grovesof lofty spreading trees, and large villages ; 
the whole combining some of the grandest objects in 
nature, and impressing the mind with cheerfulness and 
content/ Forster mentions that * on a small mount to 
the westward of the Fort of Buxar, an edifice, said to 
be erected to the memory of Ram, still exists, and that 
the Hindoos hold this monumental curiosity in a degree 
of estimation not inferior to that which the zealous and 
devout Catholics entertain for the holy House of Loretto. 
It would appear that Ram, whilst a youth, made a visit 
to this eminence and remained on it seven days. Dur- 
ing this sojourn, some learned master of the science 
taught him the art of managing the bow, and truly 
wonderful are the feats recorded of his performance in 
after-times. The least meritorious of these exploits 
would, if duly detailed, produce the exclamation that 
Ram indeed drew a long bow.' In native tradition, the 
country hereabouts is called Bhojepooreah, or the 
kingdom of Rajah Bhoja — the great Necromancer-King 
of India. 

Ofi" Buxar, we passed a pleasant night upon the 
steamer. It was a night for romance, such as when 
' Troilus sighed his soul to absent Cressida.' The moon 
had a pure, unclouded brightness. The river lay calm 
and tranquil as the bosom of innocence, and the gentle 
rippling of the water against the sides of the vessel 



Ghazipore,— the famous Rose Gardens. 127 

made a lullaby to the ears, that brought on a refreshing 
sleep to digest a hearty dinner. Early next morning, 
the Agra weighed its anchor, and went paddling on to 
Ghazipore, Reached this town at three in the after- 
noon, and there was no more sailing that day on account 
of a telegram from Calcutta. 

Many a time did we wish to see the town, that, says 
Heber, ' is celebrated throughout India for the whole- 
someness of its air, and the beauty and extent of its rose 
gardens.^ If, at last, an opportunity happened to 
gratify our wishes, it was only for the short space of 
three hours, during which no man can be sufficiently 
influenced to form his opinion of the salubrity or in- 
salubrity of a place. It is not for us either to confirm 
or contradict the wholesomeness of the air of Ghazipore, 
in our stroll through that town for a couple of hours we 
did not taste any extra-bland airs followed by an extra- 
keenness of appetite, nor did we return from it catching 
an ague or jungle-fever. As for the famous rose gardens, 
the greatest of all curiosities at Ghazipore, where one 
may fancy himself in the reality of Sadies Gulistan 
midst flowers and flowering shrubs, and where, as we 
have been told by one from personal experience, the 
opening of the countless buds is distinctly audible in the 
stillness of an evening ; they were at a distance which 
made us very much regret missing them. In truth, we 
would have come away doubting the very existence of 
these rose-fields that occupy hundi^eds of acres, had not 
a number of men come to sell their rose-water, attar, and 
other perfumed oils at the coaling ghaut of the steamer. 



128 Travels of a Hindoo. 

The handsome ruined palace of Nabob Cossim Ali Khan, 
in the banqueting-hall of which was a * deep trench, 
which used to be filled with rose-water when the Nabob 
and his friends were feasting there,^ was also missed by 
us. Our long-cherished wishes were gratified so far as 
to find Ghazipore a large town finely situated upon an 
elevated bank, and surrounded by luxuriant groves. It 
has a long wide street passing through neat- built 
bazars. The wares of the shopkeepers were exposed in 
the stalls, and groups of men nearly blocked up the way 
— the evening being the busiest time of the day in an 
Indian city. The European quarter is separated from 
the native town by gardens and fine turf-lands, scattered 
with trees and bungalows. The cantonments are in the 
far western extremity. 

Maha-Kosala, the ancient Hindoo name of the dis- 
trict in which Ghazipore is situated, is fertile in corn, 
pasture, and fruit trees, and its number of inhabitants 
to the square mile is 500 in the present day. Though 
an old town, mentioned in the Ayeen Akbarry, Ghazi- 
pore possesses no interest from old associations, and has 
no remains of antiquity. In name, in foundation, and 
in population, it is a Mahomedan town. Ghazipore is 
the first large and important town that is met with on 
the left bank of the Ganges in proceeding up from 
Rajmahl, and it is the lowest station of the North- 
western Presidency. 

In Ghazipore sleeps Lord Cornwallis. He had been 
appointed Governor- General n second time, and was pro- 
ceeding up the country, when he fell sick on the road, 
and died at Ghazipore. It was his especial command, 



Ghazipore, — Lord Comwallis's Monument, 129 

that * where the tree fell, there it should lie/ — and *the 
Marquis, who had seen so many vicissitudes in the West 
and East, and who had narrowly escaped death at York- 
town in America, and a grave on the banks of the 
Chesapeake, was buried at Ghazipore, on the banks of the 
Ganges/ The monument over his remains, says Heber, 
'is a costly building of fine freestone, of large proportions, 
solid masonry, and raised above the ground on a lofty 
and striking basement. But its pillars, instead of beauti- 
ful Corinthian well-fluted, are of the meanest Doric. 
They are quite too slender for their height, and for the 
heavy entablature and cornice which rest on them. The 
dome, instead of springing from nearly the same level 
with the roof of the surrounding portico, is raised ten 
feet higher on a most ugly and unmeaning attic story. 
The building is utterly unmeaning; it is neither a 
temple nor a tomb, neither has altar, statue, nor inscrip- 
tion. It is, in fact, a " folly '^ of the same sort, but 
far more ambitious and costly than that which is built 
at Barrackpore, and it is vexatious to think that a very 
handsome church might have been built, and a hand- 
some marble monument to Lord Cornwallis placed in its 
interior, for a little more money than has been employed 
on a thing, which, if any foreigner saw, would aflbrd 
subject for mockery to all who read his travels, at the 
expense of Anglo-Indian ideas of architecture.' The 
young trees, spoken of by Heber, have grown high in 
our day, and the lofty tomb, in which rests the Governor 
who introduced the Permanent Settlement, does not look 

quite so ill from the river. 
TOL. I. 9 



130 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Ifext day we readied Benares — the flag hoisted on 
the top of the minaret of Aurungzebe^s mosque an- 
nounced the arrival of the steamer to the population of 
that city, and the bridge of boats allowed us a passage 
to proceed on our way to Ghunar, 

Perched on the crest of a limestone spur that rises to 
the height of 150 feet abruptly from the edge of the 
stream, the fortress of Chunar loomed in the distance, 
and gradually enlarged on the view, till, coming up and 
anchoring before the town, it unfolded itself in all its 
massy proportions to our sight. Well may the Ilindoos 
imagine the dizzy height of the rocky eminence to be a 
seat of the Almighty. In the whole Gangetic valley, 
there is not another spot to be compared with Chunar ; 
and its lofty rock, rising in a slip of open woodland 
washed by the Ganges, could not have failed to attract 
the notice of the sagacious Ilindoo. 

Landed to see the fort. It is supposed to have been 
originally built and resided in by some of the Pal 
Rajahs of Bengal, and afterwards possessed by the 
Chundal kings of ancient Mahoba or modern Bundle- 
cund, from whom it has derived the name of Chundal- 
gliuv. Up an easy slope commencing almost from the 
ghaut we ascended to the fort, whi(!li covers the crest 
and sides of the rock, and rises with ' several successive 
enclosures of walls and towers, the lowest of which have 
their base waslied by the Ganges. The site and outline 
are very noble ; the rock on which it stands is perfectly 
insulated, and, either naturally or by art, bordered on 
every side by a very awful precipice, flanked, wherever 



The Fort of Ckunar. 131 

it has been possible to obtain a salient angle, with 
towers, bartizans, and bastions of various forms and 
sizes.' It is told in Hindoo tradition that the fort of 
Chunar was built in one night by a giant, and is im- 
pregnable. There is as much truth in the former as in 
the latter, which has been tested and shaken many a 
time by Baber, Homayoon, Shere Shah, and the English. 
In its present state, the fort retains little or none of its 
ancient Hindoo or Mussulman features. The ramparts 
are mounted with a good many cannon. To check the 
advance of an assaulting army, the fort is stored with 
great numbers of stone cylinders, much like garden 
rollers, to set them rolling down the steep face of the 
hill upon the enemy. 

The top of the rock forms a considerable and pretty 
space, covered with fine grass, and scattered with noble 
spreading trees. The paths beautiful, and bungalows 
neat. Warren Hastings fled here from Benares during 
the Cheyte Sing insurrection, and we were shown the 
house in which he lived. The military importance 
of Chunar has passed away, and it is occupied now 
chiefly by invalids and ' old weather-beaten ' soldiers. 
Bishop Heber saw here an ' European soldier who fought 
with Clive, and had no infirmity but deafness and dim 
sight.' The view from the ramparts is excellent, and 
the prospect round Chunar bears that English character 
which reminds an invalid resident of ' sweet, sweet 
home.' There is a narrow and crooked flight of steps 
descending from the top of the rock, and ending in a 
little postern-gate, that lets out into the river. It was 



1^2 Travels of a Hindoo. 



said by the guide to be the work of an ancient Hindoo 
Rajah. The steamer lying in the river appeared from 
the top to be diminished into a small low vessel, almost 
on a level with the surface of the waters, and scarcely 
raising up its head. 

In the fortress of Chunar is a state-prison in which 
Trimbukjee Danglia pined away his last days, hopeless 
of ever being able to give a second slip to his enemies. 
He had been first kept in custody at the fortress of 
Tannah, near Bombay. But a Mahratta groom, who 
seems to have purposely taken service under the com- 
manding officer, became the instrument to facilitate the 
means for his escape. The stable where the groom used 
to attend his horse was immediately under the window 
of Trimbukjee's prison. He paid more than usual at- 
tention to his steed, and indulged, while currying and 
cleaning the animal, in the following Mahratta song : — 

* Behind the bush the bowmen hide, 

The horse beneath the tree ; 
Where shall I find a knight will ride 

The jungle paths with me ? 
There are five-and-fifty coursers there, 

And four-and-fif ty men ; 
When the fifty-fifth shall mount his steed, 

The Deccan thrives again ! ' 

The dark innuendos conveyed in the ballad fell unheeded 
upon the ears of the uninterested, and were understood 
only by Trimbukjee, who was at last found to have 
disappeared from his dungeon, with both the groom and 
horse from the stable. Nearlv in the same manner had 
Sevajee made his escape from the hands of Aurungzebe 
by concealing himself in a large basket of swcet-mcats ; 



ChunaTy — Trimlukjee conjined there, 133 

and it is singular to remark that the history of the 
Mahratta power is comprised between two escapes — that 
of Sevajee, which led to its foundation, and that of 
Trimbukjee, which led to its dissolution. The slippery 
Trimbukjee was caught a second time, and lodged in 
the fortress of Chunar. ' He is confined with great 
strictness,' says Heber, ' having an European as well as 
a Sepoy guard, and never being trusted out of the sight 
of the sentries. Even his bed-chamber has three grated 
windows open into the verandah which serves as a 
guard-room. In other respects he is well treated, has 
two large and very airy apartments, a small building 
fitted up as a pagoda, and a little garden shaded with a 
peepul-tree, which he has planted very prettily with 
balsams and other flowers. Four of his own servants 
are allowed to attend him, but they are always searched 
before they quit or return to the fort, and must always 
be there at night. He is a little, lively, irritable-look- 
ing man, dressed, when I saw him, in a dirty cotton 
mantle, with a broad red border, thrown carelessly over 
his head and shoulders. I was introduced to him by 
Colonel Alexander, and he received me courteously, ob- 
serving that he himself was a Brahmin, and in token of 
his brotherly regard, plucking some of his prettiest 
flowers for me. He then showed me his pagoda and 
garden, and after a few common-place expressions of the 
pleasure I felt in seeing so celebrated a warrior, which 
he answered by saying, with a laugh, he should have been 
glad to make my acquaintance ekeichere, I made my bow 
and took leave. He has been now, I believe, five years in 



134 Travels of a Hindoo, 

prison, and seems likely to remain there during life, or 
till his patron and tool, Baja Row, may lessen his power 
of doing mischief. He has often offered to give security 
to any amount for his good behaviour, and to become a 
warmer friend to the Company than he has ever been 
their enemy, but his applications have been vain. He 
attributes, I understand, their failure to Mr Elpliin stone, 
the Governor of Bombay, who is, he says, ** his best 
friend, and his worst enemy,*' the faithful trustee of his 
estate, treating his children with parental kindness, and 
interesting himself in the first instance to save his life, 
but resolutely fixed on keeping him in prison, and urging 
the Supreme Government to distrust all his protesta- 
tions. His life must now be dismally monotonous and 
wearisome. Though a Brahmin of high caste, and so 
long: a minister of state and the commander of armies, 
he can neither write nor read, and his whole amusement 
consists in the ceremonies of his idolatry, his garden, 
and the gossip which his servants pick up for him in 
the town of Chunar. Avarice seems at present his rul- 
ing passion. He is a very severe inspector of his 
weekly accounts, and one day set the whole garrison in 
an uproar about some ghee which he accused his 
khansamah of embezzling ; in short, he seems less in- 
terested with the favourable reports which he from time 
to time receives of his family, than with the banking 
accounts by whicli they are accompanied. Much as he 
is said to deserve his fate, as a murderer, an extortioner, 
and a grossly perj ured man, I hope I may be allowed to 
pity him.^ 



Ancient Buildings of Chimar, 135 

Proofs of the Hindoo antiquity of Chunar are seen 
on the highest point of the rock. They consist of an 
old Hindoo palace, which has a dome in the centre, and 
several vaulted apartments, with many remains of carv- 
ing and painting. These chambers are dark and low, 
being purposely so built to exclude heat. On one side 
of this antique palace is a loftier and more airy build- 
ing, with handsome rooms and carved oriel windows, 
which was formerly the residence of the Mussulman 
governor. There is an extraordinary well, about fifteen 
feet in diameter, and sunk to a very great depth in the 
solid rock. The ancient Hindoo or Mussulman state- 
prison is observed to consist of four small round holes, 
just large enough for a man to pass through, and lead- 
ing to a subterranean dungeon, forty feet square, without 
any light or air. In a small square court, entered by a 
rusty iron door in a rugged and ancient wall, and under 
an old overshadowing peepul-tree, is a large black 
marble slab, which is said to be the spot where the 
Almighty is seated personally, but invisibly, for nine 
hours of the day, spending the other three hours at 
Benares, during which interval the rock ceases to be 
impregnable to an enemy. Tradition states this temple 
to contain ' a chest which cannot be opened, unless the 
party opening it lose his hand — four thieves having so 
suffered once, in an attempt on it.^ 

From the fort we went to the native town, which has 
houses all of stone, many of which are two-storied and 
verandahod. In the shop^ were exposed very fine 
black and red glazed earthenware, for which this 



1 36 Travels of a Hindoo, 

place is famous. Chunar is noted also for its finest 
tobacco. 

The rail from Chunar to Mirzapore passes through a 
rugged hilly and woody countrJ^ Baber mentions it 
to have been infested by the wild elephant, tiger, and 
rhinoceros. Now, the region is haunted only by wolves, 
and, in rare instances, by bears. Many of the quarries, 
which from a remote period have been worked for 
buildings at Ghazipore, Benares, Chimar, Mirzapore, 
and almost the whole neighbourhood, are seen in the 
range of rocks along the foot of which the rail runs in a 
parallel. They have been quarried for ages, and whole 
towns have been built of their stones, but still no sensi- 
ble diminution is marked in their size. 

Reached Mirzapore. The long line of neat stone- 
ghauts covering a steep bank, the vast number of richly- 
carved temples and pagodas, the handsome native houses, 
the elegant gardens and bungalows, and the thick crowd 
of boats of all descriptions, present an appearance of 
grandeur that rivals Benares, and indicates the opulence 
possessed by the largest and richest mart of traffic in 
the centre of Ilindoostan. Mirzapore has no ancient 
importance or renown like Rajmahal, Bhaugulpore, 
Monghyr, Patna, Benares, but, excepting the last, it has 
eclipsed all the towns and cities in the Gangetic valley. 
It is not mentioned in the Aveen Akbarrv. Tieffen- 
thaler describes it as * a mart having two ghauts giving 
access to the Ganges.' It is laid down on KenneFs map 
published in 1781, but not mentioned in the accounts of 
the march of the British armv from Buxar to Allahabad. 



Mirzapore, — Temple of Bindachul, 137 

Mirzapore has grown and prospered under English rule 
within the memory of living man, and as a mart of trade 
ranks next to the metropolis. Here is exposed for sale 
the corn, the cotton, and the dyes of one-sixth of India. 
Here, in the warehouses, are collected cloth-goods and 
metals for the consumption of near fifty millions of men. 
Here are manufactured various goods and the richest 
carpets. Bankers and merchants from all parts of 
Hindoostan and Central India are located here for 
business. The enterprising and thrifty Marwaree is 
attracted here, and returns home a rich man. The 
Bengalee, too, is in this great field of speculation and 
competition. There is no town in India which has risen 
like Mirzapore purelj^ from commercial causes, uncon- 
nected with religion or the auspices of royalty. Much as 
Mirzapore has grown and flourished, it is destined to 
quadruple in population, wealth, and splendour, on the 
opening of the rail to Bombay. 

In Mirzapore is seen the most beautiful choiik of all 
in India. The large square is enclosed by ranges of 
high stone-buildings, from which project elegant bal- 
conies over-hanging the market-place on all sides. 
There is also a superb serai. From a noisome tank, 
it has become a commodious accommodation for several 
hundred travellers, with towers at the corners, and a 
well and shrubbery in the centre. This has been built 
at the expense of a benevolent native lady. 

Four miles from Mirzapore is the Temple of Binda- 
chill. Here is seen the only instance of Kali in all 
Hindoostan, who is the goddess of thugs and robbers. 



138 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Her shrine is on the brow of a solitary hill, where 
murders were very conveniently committed without 
transpiring to the public. It is said, that * 250 boats 
of river thugs, in crews of fifteen, used to ply between 
Benares and Calcutta, five months every year, under the 
pretence of conveying pilgrims — their victims' back was 
broken, and the corpse was thrown into the river.' 

From Mirzapore to Allahabad, for an account of 
which the reader is referred to following pages. 



^39 



CHAPTER III. 

The tale of our journey opens with all the pomp 
and circumstance of an Eastern romance. Our party 
was composed of four, — dear reader. But, instead of 
the prince, the minister, the commander, and the 
merchant, you must be content with the less con- 
spicuous characters of the doctor, the lawyer, the 
scholar, and the tradesman. All the charm of a re- 
semblance lies only in the beginning. The story then 
professes to be something more serious than the tale of 
an Indian nursery, which induces the very opposite of 
what is aimed at here — to help the reader to keep 
awake to the interest of the scenes and sights about 
him. 

Friday, the 19th of October, 1860, was the day ap- 
pointed for our departure. Crossing over to Ilowrah, 
we engaged passage for Burdwan. The train started 
at 10 A.M., and we fairly proceeded on our journey. 
Surely, our ancient Bhagiruth, who brought the Ganges 
from heaven, is not more entitled to the grateful re- 
membrance of posterity, than is the author of the Rail- 
way in India. 



140 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Travelling by the Rail very much resembles mi- 
grating in one vast colony, or setting out together 
in a whole moving town or caravan. Nothing under 
this enormous load is ever tagged to the back of a 
locomotive, and yet we were no sooner in motion than 
Calcutta, and the Hooghly, and How rah, all began to 
recede away like the scenes in a Dissolving View. 

The first sight of a steamer no less amazed than 
alarmed the Burmese, who had a tradition that the 
capital of their empire would be safe, until a vessel 
should advance up the Irrawady without oars and sails ! 
Similarly does the Hindoo look upon the Railway as a 
marvel and miracle — a novel incarnation for the re- 
generation of Bharat-versh. 

The fondness of the Bengalee for an in-door life is 
proverbial. He out-Johnsons Johnson in cockneyism. 
The Calcutta Baboo sees in the Chitpoor Road the 
same 'best highway in the world,' as did the great 
English Lexicographer in the Strand of London. But 
the long vista, that is opening from one end of the 
empire to the other, will, in a few years, tempt him out- 
of-doors to move in a more extended orbit, to enlarge 
the circle of his terrene acquaintance, to see variety in 
human nature, and to divert his attention from the 
species Calcutta-wallah to the genus man. The fact 
has become patent, that which was achieved in months 
and days is now accomplished in hours and minutes, 
and celerity is as much the order of the day as security 
and saving. 

The iron-horse of the 19th century may be said to 



Piindooa. 141 



have realized the Pegasus of the Greeks, or the Pukaraj 
of the Hindoos. It has given tangibility and a type to 
an airy nothing, and has reduced fancy to a matter-of- 
fact. The introduction of this great novelty has silenced 
Burke's reproach, Hhat if the English were to quit 
India, they would leave behind them no memorial of 
art or science worthy of a great and enlightened 
nation.' 

From' Howrah to Bally the journey now-a-days is 
one of five minutes. In twice that time one reaches to 
Serampore. The next station is Chandemagore — thence 
to Chinsurah, and then on to Hooghly and Muggra. 
The Danes, the Dutch, the French, the Portuguese, 
and the English, all settling at these places in each 
other's neighbourhood, once presented the microcosm 
of Europe on the banks of the Hooghly. 

All along the road the villages still turn out to see 
the progress of the train, and gaze in ignorant admira- 
tion at the little world borne upon its back. 

Nothing so tedious as a twice-told tale — nothing so 
insipid as a repeated dish. The story of our journey is, 
therefore, commenced from Pundooa, Once the seat of 
a Hindoo Rajah, when it was fortified by a wall and 
trench, five miles in circumference, Pundooa is now a 
rural town of half its former size. From the train it is 
seen to peep from amidst groves, orchards, and gardens, 
surrounding it on all sides, and imparting to it a 
pleasing sylvan character. Traces of its ancient fortifi- 
cation are yet discernible at places. The tower, 120 
feet high, arrests the eye from a long way ofi*. This is 



142 Travels of a Hindoo. 

the oldest of all buildings in the plains of Lower 
Bengal, which has defied the storms and rains of a 
tropical climate through 500 years. It is striking that 
mere brick-work can resist the elements for such a 
long period. Thus standing untouched by time, and 
uninjured by the weather, the tower is a hoary witness 
of the events of several ages. It has seen the rise and 
fall of Dacca, Rajmahal, and Moorshedabad, and still 
exists. To this day the building is in a very good con- 
dition, and promises to outlive many more generations. 
Outward the surface of the tower has been overlaid 
with a thick crust of the hoar of ages. 

Pundooa is famous for the Battle of the Cow, 
fought in 1340, a.d. The birth of a long-denied heir 
to its Rajah had given occasion for a great public fete. 
There was a Persian translator attached to the Hindoo 
Court, who too wanted to partake in the jubilee. But 
the killing of a cow is indispensable to the making of a 
Mahomedan holiday. Living in a Hindoo town, the 
Moonshee hesitated between the choice of beef steaks 
and the wrath of alien townsmen. In an evil moment, 
his temptation getting the better of his prudence, he 
decided to slay a cow. Care was taken privately to 
bury the entrails and bones in an obscure part of the 
town. But very often does a trifle turn out to blow up 
a wrong-doer from the fancied security of his pre- 
cautions. The slaughter of a cow was an extraordinary 
occurrence in a community of vegetarians and icthyo- 
phagists. It did not escape the powerful olfactory of the 
jackals. Nothing was ever likely to be so little antici- 



The Battle of the Cow, 143 

patcd, as that a pack of these quiek-scented creatui'es 
should happen to be attracted to the spot, and, un- 
sodding the remains of the slaughtered animal, hold 
their nocturnal carnival, and then leave exposed its 
bones and skull on the field. Next morning, when the 
head and front of the offence too plainly told its tale, the 
whole town rose up to a man to demand vengeance. 
The new-born child, deemed unworthy to live with the 
blood of kine upon his head, was first sacrificed to 
appease the manes of the departed quadruped. The 
hue and cry then followed the Moonshee, who had not 
reckoned upon his being outwitted and betrayed by 
jackals. He appealed to the Rajah for protection. But 
the enormity of his crime left no hopes of mercy from 
any quarter. Abandoned to his fate, the Moonshee 
gave the slip to his enemies, and, escaping to his kith 
and kin, kindled the flames of a war, which, raging for 
many years, at length terminated in the downfall of the 
Hindoos. 

It is said the place held out so long as the waters of 
a sacred tank possessed the virtue of restoring life to 
the fallen soldiers of the Hindoo garrison. But charm 
was counteracted by charm. A live heifer is more 
venerated by the Hindoo than the gods of his Triad. 
But in the shape of meat, it is highest abomination. 
The Moslems, therefore, played the mse of throwing 
in a steak of beef, and defiling thereby the sanctity of 
the tank out of which their opponent drank. No more 
could the besieged Hindoos touch a drop of its water. 
The spell was broken that had made them invincible. 



144 Travels of a Hindoo, 

and thirst staring them in the face, the screw of their 
courage got loose, and they gave up the struggle.* 
This remarkable tank may yet be seen some 200 yards 
on the west of the town. The site occupied by the 
present Railway station-house is on the very spot of 
the battle-field. The spade of the workmen has struck 
upon many skulls and bones there beneath the turf. 
Politically, the siege of Pundooa was not less im- 
portant than the siege of ancient Illion or Lunka — 
though no rustic Homer or Valmiki has been at pains 
to commemorate the hapless end of a bovine Bhuggo- 
buttee. In truth it was a desperate struggle for the 
domination of race over race, and of religion over re- 
ligion, which ended in the complete triumph of Islam 
over Hindooism. To this day, there exists a bitter 
antagonism between the two races at Pundooa, and one 
is apt to suppose that the ghost of the cow still haunts 
the place for its unavenged fate. 

The tower commemorates the victory of the Islamite. 
The iron rod running up to its top is verily an antici- 
pation of Franklin^s discovery — though Mahomedan 
credulity should regard it to have been the walking-stick 
of Shah Sufi, the hero of the war. Hard by is his tomb 
— an object of great sanctity to the Mussulmans of Lower 

* Many such instances occur in the history of India, to show how 
superstition hastened the end of the ancient Hindoo sovereignty. The 
fall of Balabhipoor, in ancient Saurashtra, was hastened by polluting 
with the blood of kine the sacred fountain from which arose, at the 
summons of Rajah Silladitya, the seven-headed horse Septaswa, 
which draws the car of the sun, to bear him to battle. In a later age, 
Allaoodeen practised the same rvse against the celebrated Achil, the 
Keeche prince of Gagrown, which caused the surrender of this im- 
pregnable fortress. (See Col. Tod's Kojasthan, vol. i. page 219.) 



A tame Alligator, 145 

Bengal. The mosque is a superb building, two hun- 
dred feet long, with sixty domes — a number intended, 
perhaps, to have preserved an arithmetic correspond- 
ence with the threescore Rajahs who fell in the siege. 

The Peer-pukur at Pundooa is a large tank, forty 
feet deep, and 500 years old. It has a pretty appear- 
ance with the ruined imamharees and tombs studding 
it^ banks. The most remarkable tenant of this tank is 
a tame alligator called Fatikhan, which has been taught 
to obey the call of a fakeer living upon the embank- 
ments. On summons the monster shows himself upon 
the surface, and keeps floating for several minutes. 
To amuse the spectators, he is called to approach the 
ghaut, and then ordered to make his exit. But the 
animal is loath to depart, till a fowl or some other food 
is thrown to him, when he is content to retire into the 
depths of the tank. This beats Pliny's elephants danc- 
ing the rope-dance, or Queen Berenice's lion dining at 
her table and licking her cheeks. * 

* Tlie Maharajah Sheodan Sing had one day been amusing us 
with the feats of his youth, his swimming from island to island, and 
bestriding the alligators for an excursion. There are two of these 
alligators quite familiar to the inhabitants of Oodipoor, who come 
when called ' from the vasty deep ' for food, and I have often ex- 
asperated them by throwing an inflated bladder, which the monsters 
greedily received, only to dive away in angry disappointment.' (Col. 
Tod, vol. i. page 648.) Captain Von Orlich saw thirty alligators in 
a tank near Kurrachee, who, at the call of the fakeer, ' instantly 
crept out of the water, and like so many dogs lay in a semi-circle at 
the feet of their master.' The art of taming and training beasts and 
birds has been practised in India from a long antiquity. Talking- 
birds were common in the age of Menu, who advises a king to hold 
his council in a place from which such birds are to be carefully re- 
moved. The ancient Greek writers mention that, in the festive pro- 

voii. I. 10 



14^ Travels of a Hindoo. 

The Pundooa of Bengal liistory Is not to be con- 
founded with the Pundooa under notice. The latter 
seems to have either given its name to, or derived it 
from, the place where Sultan Shumsoodeen Bengara 
removed the seat of Government from Gour in 1350, 
and where his son and successor Sccunder built a su- 
perb mosque in 13G0 a.d. The two places flourished 
nearly at the same time.* , 

Past hurrying on by Boinchi. The mere glimpse 
caught of its dense mass of buildings and huts is enough 
to give an idea of its populous and thriving character. 
Fifty years ago, no such rural prosperity met the eye 
of the traveller passing through these regions. Then 
a brick-house dared not pop up its head in such an ob- 
scure provincial town. The well-doing burgher was 
sure to have betrayed himself to the dacoits. To this 
day, the country gentleman does not neglect the pre- 
caution of fortifying his house with a high wall, and 
nailing the doors of his gate with huge nails to resist 

cessions of the Hindoos, ' tame lions and panthers formed a part of 
the show to which singing hirds, and others remarkahle for their 
plumage, were also made to contribute sitting on trees, wliich were 
transported on large waggons, and increased the variety of the scene.' 
The magpie plays an important part in the drama of the liutnavali, as 
does the Sarl-iiflok in the Bhagbut. Such were the public amuse- 
ments of the generations who knew not anything of idolatry to adorn 
their processions. Very probably it w;is from the Indians that the 
llomans borrowed many of their games in the Circus and Amphi- 
theatre. The wild-beast fights of the Mogul emperors were but a re- 
vival of the ancient Hindoo diversions. To this day those diversions 
survive in the bulbul-fights and ram-lights of our countrymen, in the 
teaching of i)arrots and magpies to utter the names of Kadha and 
Krishna, and in the artificial mountains, trees, and gardens, forming 
a part of our nuptial processions. 
* See Stewart's History of Bengal. 



Present state of Hindoo Towns and Villages, 147 

the battering of the dhehje. The stair-cases in his 
zenana are all made to end in trap-doors. On his roof 
are piles of stones kept in readiness to crush the ma- 
rauder who might venture to assail the little garrison. 
But no man now dares to defy the authority of law. 
The humblest individual is now assured of protection 
by the State in the possession of what is earned by his 
diligence, or hoarded by his self-denial. There are few 
subjects to which the attention of our provincial gentry 
is so urgently needed to be turned now as the sanita- 
tion of their townships — a subject important for its re- 
sults in the physical history of a nation. The lapse of 
three thousand years has not suggested one improve- 
ment on the principles of town- building laid do^vrl by 
old Menu. Drainage there is none in the topography 
of a Hindoo town or village. The roads are mere foot- 
paths, traversable at the best by a single draft bullock. 
Bowers and gardens are indeed important in rural 
housekeeping. But the axe should level all that riots 
and rots — all that hinders ventilation, sunshine, and 
evaporation. The gloomy orchard is no longer wanted 
to shelter the householder overtaken by dacoits. Tanks 
and ponds are the best features in an Indian village, 
and their ghauts often form the gayest scenes in a vil- 
lage life. But out of twenty such public reservoirs, 
fifteen are mere cess-pools which poison the air of the 
village by their stench and malaria. 

It is remarkable in all Hindoo towns and villages to 
see the low-castes occupy everywhere only the outskirts 
and live in small low wigwams. The hatred of the an- 



148 Travels of a Hindoo, 

cieut Sudra Is now borne against the modern Bagdees 
and Domes. To be at quits, the Bagdees and Domes 
retaliate upon their aristocratic neighbours by nightly 
thefts and burglaries. They cannot but choose thus to 
live at the expense of the community. Depredation 
naturally becomes the vocation of those who are ex- 
cluded from all social intercourse and legitimate source 
of gain, and to whom no incentive is left for honourable 
distinction in society. Owing to this baneful excom- 
munication, crime has become normal to low life in 
India, and gang-robbery prevalent from times beyond 
the age of the Institutes. The hereditary robber, too, 
deems to have his own prestige, and is slowly weaned 
from the ancestral habits grown into a second nature. 
Though better days have dawned, and the gangs have 
been completely broken up, still there is many a sturdy 
fellow who neither digs, nor weaves, nor joins wood for 
his livelihood, and who has no ostensible means of living. 
Very often does such a chap happen to be seen to smoke 
squatting before the doorway of his hut, and to cast 
wistful glances at the passing train, with 'a lurking 
devil in his eye.' 

From Boinchi the way lies through a fine open 
country, every inch of which is under cultivation. On 
either hand the eye wanders over one sheet of waving 
corn-fields, and orchards, and gardens of plantain and 
sugar-cane. Ilere and there are little meadows enli- 
vened by cattle. Near the horizon the prospect seems 
to be closed in a gloomy jungle. But the traveller 
draws near, and is agreeably surprised to find it a nar- 



Batka. — Mamaree, 149 

row belt of villages teeming with population. The 
scene is repeated, and again does the seeming jungle 
turn out to be a thick mass of the habitations of men ; 
and so on, the deception is carried for several miles in 
succession. 

Six miles interior to the right of the station-house 
at Batka is Davipoor. The Kali, to whom the village 
is indebted for its name, is a fierce Amazonian statue, 
seven feet high, and quite terror-striking to the be- 
holder. The opulent family of the Sin ghees have 
adorned their native village with a lofty pagoda, which 
is much to the credit of the rural masons. From the 
Rail the crest of this temple is faintly descried near 
the horizon. Personally to us the place shall always 
be memorable for a cobra eating up a whole big cat. 

The locomotive quickens in its pace by the turn of 
a peg similarly to the horse of the Indian in Scheher- 
zade^s tale ; and it goes on and on quite ' like a pawing 
steed.' Passed Mamaree , — a pretty village with many 
brick buildings, and a fine nuboruftun, or nine-pinnacled 
Hindoo temple. The beautiful country, the invigor- 
ating air, the rich prospect of cultivation for miles, the 
rapid succession of villages, the innumerable tanks and 
fish-ponds, the swarming population, and the numerous 
monuments of art and industry peculiar to Indian so- 
ciety, tell the traveller that he has entered the district 
of Burdwan — the district which for salubrity, fertility, 
populousness, wealth, and civilization, is the most re- 
puted in Bengal. Burdwan, Bishcnpoor, and Beer- 
bhoom, were the three great Hindoo Rajdoms in the 



150 Travels of a Hindoo. 
fi 

tract popularly known under the name of Raur. That 
of Burdwan has alone survived, and is contemplated 
with a far deeper interest than the other two. Though 
sacked and pillaged many a time, the industry, intelli- 
gence, and number of its people, have as often covered 
the face of the land with wealth. Xowhere in our pro- 
vince is ancient capital so much hoarded. Out of the 
wealth annually created by its population, Burdwan 
pays the largest revenue of all the zillahs in Bengal. 
Tlio Banka, windmg in serpentine meanders, adds that 
* babbling brook ' to * the pomp of groves ' and * tlie 
garniture of llelds,' which completes the charming 
varietv t>f this well-known tract. The f^rand Railwav 
viaduct, half a mile long, is an architectural wonder in 
the valley of the Bamoodur. It is a britUe curbing 
that river notorious for its impetuosity.* 0\\r journey 

* llanilv anv nnider luvdstobe infonned of the sudden ri^e< tu 
whioli \\w P:nnoo.liir is sulji^'t duriiii: the poricxlie rains. On ' if tli*- 
most seven* imuulationsexperienood was in 1823. when this river ros«' 
higher than ever it had <U>ne in the recoUection of th^* oldisi iniia:>ii- 
nnt, and ov«TtKnved tlie oountn- for many m:I''<. All th*^ eiuhniik- 
ments wen* overto^pod and carried away, and searc»'ly a trace of 
them was Uft. In inanv rlaoes the face of il.e counirv ^\as en- 
tirelv ehanir-'d. The sitt»s of tin^* vil-ai^es, tanks and srirdens WfT- 
iH>nverievl into a level plain of s;md. liic ground on whieli tlu' cre^ -^ 
stiHHl li-va:n.^ a de-T; in a f>'\v lu>nrs, and imrit for fLit'irr- c:r.::v;i .:,.:: 
h\ the s:iinl with wliioh it was overlaid. Ther*» had bet^n live f- : i-: 
water in the strt^-.'cs of lUin.h\an. The L'urri, Hanka, and lVi:tK<..i;:- 
were uni^'d, and a sheet rf \Aa:?'r. mo:--' than »> nii'.-^-i in Ir-r. <'.:!;. :'.: • 
3 or 4 feet in deptli, tlowed over the country eastward towards «.-.!*:. 
ami acrosc> the iliVicIily. Tl'.o d-. vasiativn was ovr-rv.!.. !T:iir._:, a:. I :1 
U>s»* of lives was not much l-'s* than th'^ Ios.s of pn-'p-rty. In :i:'-'y 
plact** the inhabiiauts wtre carried elf, a few only btiiii: >;i\Td 1} 
tkviun^ ou ihe roofs of Lu:s or { oicLiui: upon t"ees. Tle-.^ il..*.: 
♦^iUvhI thus, cs<*aped only wi;h their live-s. In tliat inur.<ir:o!r. 1 
giKHi-t>ized pinnace mailed tLiouLrh tL^^ Sot^k.'<ij:ur 1 a;:ar. I h;:i -:■.:■'". 
and v.LauderiL«i:*. re were laidund-.r wat-r. A ti* ir car I:;id -^v::.. ' 



k. 



Burdwany — the City of Flora. 151 

for the day now ucared its end, and all eyes were turned 
to greet the view of Burdwan. In a little time the 
sight of distant steeples and temples made itself wel- 
come to the travellers, and before the little second-hand 
of a watch had thrice gone the round of its circle, we 
alighted on the classic soil of Burdwan. Soondra had 
accomplished a journey of six months in six days, we 
have accomplished a journey of three days in three 
hours — a proof of science rivalling the speed of the 
poet's fancy. 

Travellers have hardly done justice to Burdwan, the 
reality of which exceeds all that is chanted in ballad or 
song. In all directions the scenery fully justifies its an- 
cient poetical appellation of Koosumapoor, or the city 
of Flora. The very walks leading to the town lie 
through a succession of groves, orchards, gardens, and 
flower-pots ; and Bharutchunder's 

Burdwan, maha sthan 
Chow de ka ta, poosjjho ban 

is true to the very letter. The tanks on all sides, and 
the constant processions of women, with pitchers of 
water on their waists, fully realize the ghaut- scene of 
that poet. There was a thin cloud over the sky, and 
the murky day, and the gentle breaths of air, well 
chimed with the softest landscapes and the softest re- 
collections. The Banka flows its crystal stream right 

down to Calcutta, and stranded at tlie ghaut which has since been 
called the Eut-tollah ghaut. The hiuiding system, maintained for 
many years at a great cost, has been abandoned, and the countiy is 
left to be raised by a sitling process. No serious rise has taken place 
since the erection of the Railway. 



'■^2 Travels of a Hindoo. 



through the town. Though its bed now is almost a 
mere waste of sand, the place is not a whit less poetical 
without the Naiades. 

Place aids the efiPect of poetry, and in Burdwan we 
go back in imagination to the days of Biddya and 
Soondra, and think more of old Beersingha than of the 
present Maharajah. The man who can feel no emo- 
tions in the scene of their adventures and the land of 
Noor Jehan's sojourn — who can ignore the place, the 
name of which is associated with the Kobi-kun-kun, and 
the early anecdotes of Eammohun Roy, must thank his 
stars to have not a grain of romance or enthusiasm in his 
comppsition. The love-adventures of Biddya and Soondra 
have all the improbability of fiction mingled with the 
truth of fact — all the romance of Mojunu and Leila, 
with the realitv of Eloisa and Abelard. But the liaison 
is told with all the barcfacedness of a rake ; and Bha- 
rutchunder's Biddya, and Calidas' Sacontola, are beings 
of antipodal difference. ' Wilt thou express in one 
word,' says Goethe, ' the bloom of the Spring and the 
fruit of the Autumn — all that attracts and entrances — 
all that feeds and satisfies — the Heaven itself and the 
Earth? I name thee, Sacontola! — and it is done.'* 
By the side of the pure and guileless Sacontola, how 
little there is of the platonic, and how much of the 

* This has been put into rhyme by Professor Eastwick, and cited 
by Professor Monier Williams in his recent translation of the play of 
Sacontola. 

* Wouldst thou tlie young year's blossoms and the fruits of its decline, 
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed — 
Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine .' 
I name thee, {sacontola ! and all at once is said.' 



The story of Biddy a and Soondra. 153 

practical, in the character of Biddya. The poet ought 
to have been aware that ' drapery is more alluring than 
exposure, and that the imagination is more powerfully 
moved by delicate hints than by gross descriptions/ 
He has made Biddya to sit for the picture of a modem 
lady of Bengal, and has taken no pains to sustain her 
character by high sentiments becoming an accomplished 
princess. His tale has all the inebriating lusciousness 
of the grape, and is therefore eagerly drunk in by the 
multitude. But the poison swallowed is in no long time 
rejected with a nausea. 

By the learned native public of Bengal the story of 
Biddya and Soondra is thought to be without an iota of 
truth in it. The tale was undertaken at the request of 
the Rajahs of Kishnagur, to level a squib at the rival 
house of Burdwan, with all the spice of romantic in- 
terest. But the Veronese no more insist on the fact of 
Juliet's story, than do the Burdwanese cling to the 
memory of Biddya, and embalm it in their household 
traditions. They show in Verona Juliet's tomb in a 
wild and desolate garden, attached to a convent.* In 
Burdwan they show you the site of Biddya's house, her 
favourite pond, and the Kali of her father's household. 

* * I have been over Verona. The amphitheatre is wonderful — 
beats even Greece. Of the truth of Juliet's story, they seem tenacious 
to a degree, insisting on the fact, giving a date (1303), and showing a 
tomb. It is a plain, open, and partly decayed sarcophagus, with 
withered leaves in it, in a wild and desolate conventual garden, once 
a cemetery, now ruined to the very graves. The situation struck me 
as very appropriate to the legend, being blighted as their love. I 
have brought away a few pieces of granite, to give to my daughter and 
my nieces.' — Byron's Letters^ Nov. 9, 1816. 



154 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Biddf/apotta, or ' the local habitation ' of Biddya, is 
first of all pointed out to give the lie to the opinion of 
her being a myth. There is now nothing more of this 
precious abode, than a trace of some rubbish, fully 
doubtful, but looking sufficiently antique. Near it, on 
a spot, are shown the faded marks of some ancient ex- 
cavation, said to indicate the subterranean passage 
through which Soondra used to make his way incognito 
into the chambers of the princess. Further on a little 
gap in the earth is pretended to be one of the mouths 
of that famous passage. The place has silted up, and 
paddy is grown, where the princess * lived, and moved, 
and had her being.' The whereabouts of the other 
mouth is quite unknown '; and to the regret of all In- 
dian Cavaliers, the site of Ileera's cottage is beyond all 
possibility of identification. 

Certainly, the vulnerable point in Bharutchunder's 
tale is that about the subterranean passage. In this 
sceptical age it is at once reckoned among the eu'traordi- 
naries, and exclaimed at by the reader, * AVell, mole, 
coulds't thou work i' the earth so fast.' Tradition may 
point out its local site, and allude to its local existence 
three hundred years ago, when Rajah ^laun Sing, in 
his vice-regal tour through Bengal, stopped at Burdwan, 
and ^'isited the remarkable tunnel. The practicableness 
of its execution may receive a countenance from the 
mining operations at Raneegunge, and the caves of El- 
lora and Elephant a may remove every doubt as to the 
engineering skill of the ancient Hindoos. But a tunnel, 
however common now, was an extraordinary undcrtak- 



The story of Biddya and Soondra. 155 

ing in that age. Unless we chose to regard that lovers' 
feats are miracles to men of sober-mindedness, there 
should be no hesitation as to the subterranean passage 
through which Soondra carried on his stealthy inter- 
views with the princess, having existed more in the 
imagination of the poet than in reality. 

The Maiin-surrohiir is next shown. It is said to 
have been used by the princess for her ablutions. Once, 
it seems to have been a splendid tank, but is now a 
shallow piece of water, divided by the Grand Trunk 
road into two sections. The surface forms a charming 
bed of the Indian lily. In one division, the flowers 
are white, in the other violet — making a pleasing con- 
trast by thcii* variety. The bee hovers and hums his 
ditty over the flowers. Both the lily and the bee are in 
harmony with the soft reminiscences of the spot. But 
from Biddyapotta to the Maun-surrobur the distance is 
more than a mile. Unless Beersing^s palace had covered 
all this space, the identity of that tank is very much to 
be doubted. The name of the tank is also significant 
of its origin from Eaja Maun, who may have left it to 
denote the beneficence of his administration. 

The third proof is furnished by the Mush an, whither 
Soondra had been led for execution. The site of that 
spot was identified by the self-same Kali, at whose altar 
that Prince was to have been immolated. She now 
bears the name of Doorlubba Thacreen, from the place 
of her abode. Situated in the open and lonely fields — 
where it is little frequented by men, and haunted as it 
were by ghosts and apparitions, the spot bears out the 



1^6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

truth of the poet's description. The image is of a small 
size, carved out on a slab of stone. Underneath the 
figure is an obsolete inscription, which sufficiently ex- 
culpates it from being a sculptural fraud and forgery of 
a recent date. It also serves to lend a colour of truth to 
her pretensions of being as old as Beersingha — and the 
bofid fide goddess, who has eaten the poojah of that 
Rajah, received the votive oSerings of Biddya, and 
heard the prayers of Soondra. If really such, she ought 
herself to act as the umpire between those beings and 
the sceptics of the nineteenth century. 

No decisive conclusion can be arrived at as to the 
truth or fictitiousness of Bharutchunder's tale — * much 
may be said on both sides of the question.' But to save 
trouble, grant that Biddya was a character of historic 
authenticity. Her epoch, then, may be fixed somewhere 
between the eighth and eleventh centuries — a period 
tallying with that, during which the Chola Princes held 
a powerftd sovereignty in Southern India, and had their 
capital at Kanchipoor or modern Conjeveram, whence 
Soondra came. There was in that age a considerable 
intercourse between the Coromandel Coast and the Gan- 
getic valley. It is mentioned in the Periplus that 'large 
vessels crossed the Bay of Bengal to the mouth of the 
Ganges.' In the days of Asoca, voyages were made 
across the Bay from Ceylon in seven days — such as the 
modern mail steamers perform now. Soondra may have 
come up in a clipper vessel of his time — there is at 
least some truth in the speed of his journey. Beersingli 
may have belonged to a collateral branch of the ancient 



Old Burdwan, — Shei'e Afkiuu 157 



Gunga-vansa Rajahs. The neighbouring Rajah of 
Bishenpoor traces back his ancestry for a thousand 
years. 

Old Burdwan is now called the Nahobhaut, Here 
flourished the ancient Hindoo Rajahs. Here ruled the 
Mussulman Chiefs. Here encamped the Rajahs Maun 
Sing and Toder Mull. Here was Mocoondoram's house. 
Here Azeem Ooshaun built a mosque — and here was 
paid down to him by the English the purchase-money 
of 'Sutanatty, Govindpore, and Calicottah.' Hardly a 
relic exists of these times. 

Shere Afkun, the mightiest name in the annals of 
sportsmanship, whose pugilistic victory over an enor- 
mous tiger is a recorded fact in Mogul history, a fact 
throwing Gordon Gumming into the shade, — lies buried 
here far away from the place of his birth in Turkomania. 
Never was the poet's decree — that ' none but the brave 
deserves the fair ' — more remarkably exemplified than 
in the instance of Shere Afkun, whose most extraordi- 
nary bravery had been rewarded with the hand of the 
most extraordinary beauty of the age — the future Noor 
Jehan. 

The Sivalaya in old Burdwan consists of 108 tem- 
ples, in two large amphitheatrical circles, one within the 
other. The old Rajbaree is at this place. There is an 
impression that large hoards of money are buried in 
this house. The exact spot, however, is unknown. A 
predecessor of the present Rajah had attempted to dig 
up the hoards. But only wasps, hornets, and serpents 
issued from the earth. This is giving but another ver- 



158 Travels of a Hindoo. 

sion to the old story of the ' burrowing ants ' of Herod- 
otus, and the 'Hamakars^ or gold-makers of Menu. 
The ' diggings ' in Bengal are not less terrible than 
in California. Nothing less than the Rajah's life ap- 
peased the Yacsha guarding the treasures. The danger 
attending the excavation has deterred from all further 
operations of the kind. 

Beersingha's line has become extinct for several 
.generations. The present family is said to be descended 
from an emigrant merchant of Lahore. Though with- 
out any relationship with the preceding line, the present 
family, it is told, long smarted under Bharatchunder's 
keen and brilliant satire. It was strictly forbidden for 
many years to be enacted on a festival in any part of 
their Rajdom. 

The Maharajah is all in all in Burdwan. He is the 
oldest and wealthiest Zemindar in Bengal, and keeps a 
state resembling that of a petty sovereign. His man- 
sion is a palatial building, and superbly adorned with 
mirrors and chandeliers. His summer-house is deco- 
rated with a regal splendour. He possesses a vast store 
of gold and silver plate, a rich wardrobe of shawls, bro- 
cades, and jewellery. These are displayed to lend a 
princely magnificence to his birth-day balls and ban- 
quets. His Highness has a large stable of horses and 
elephants, an excellent dairy, and aviary. The favourite 
amusements of the present Rajah are architecture and 
gardening. He is taxed for carrying them to an excess. 
The appointed architects of his household are employed 
throughout the year in building and rebuilding; the 



Bur divan, — ike Tanks, — tke Dilkkoosa-laug. 159 

upholsterers in furnisliing and re-fiirnisliing ; and the 
songsters in giving new versions and cadences to their 
songs. The Khetrya of Menu is an extinct animal like 
the Mammoth. On this side of Bengal, however, the 
species is boasted to be perpetuated by the proprietor to 
the rich estates of Burdwan. 

Half the town appears to be covered by tanks. 
The largest of them, Kristoskair, is almost an artificial 
lakelet. Two women once swam across this tank — 
neither for love nor lucre — but betting only a seer of 
confectionery. They might have thrown the gauntlet 
to old Leander. The high embankments of the tank 
look like the ramparts of a fortress, — the more so for 
being mounted with a pair of guns, though to all ap- 
pearance they are as obsolete as the old English alphabet. 

In the evening to the Dilkhoom-haug — a pleasant 
lounge. The principal attraction in it is the menagerie. 
The pair of lions there staggers the orthodox Hindoo 
in his belief of the unity of the king of the forest. In 
Brahminical zoology, the species lion has no mate and 
multiplication. He is a single and solitary animal in 
the creation. But instead of one, the number found 
here is dual — a male and a female. From dual the 
beasts have made themselves into plural, by multiplying 
young ones some half a dozen in number. The lion 
also is an invisible creature according to the Poorans. 
But the old fellow is so great an aristocrat, as to make 
himself something more than merely visible to the 
human eye, by spouting urine at the crowds of specta- 
tors gathered to disturb his imperial humour. The 



i6o Travels of a Hindoo, 

brutes paired togetlier, are observed to dally for twenty- 
four hours — quite in the fashion of Oriental kings — 
making their day live long in confinement. No god- 
dess rides upon them to bless the vision of a Sacto. 
Nothing like a practical contradiction to the fallacies 
of priestcraft. The outlandish lion betrays the foreign 
origin of Doorga, who is probably a modified type of 
the Egyptian Ken — borrowed in the days of ancient 
Indo-Egyptian intercourse, and adopted by Pooranic 
idolatry to counteract the prevalence of Buddhism. 

More than half the income of the Maharajah appears 
to be expended upon Devalayas, or institutions of idola- 
try, made the medium of charity to the poor. In this 
way is squandered nearly one- tenth of the annual in- 
come of the Hindoos in Bengal. But the nation is im- 
bibing more enlarged sentiments of benevolence ; and 
Hindoo philanthropy and public spirit, hitherto confined 
to relieving only the physical wants of individuals, 
have begun to endow schools and colleges, and * trans- 
mute money into mind.' There is to come a time, when 
idols shall disappear from the land, and the lapse of idol 
trusts shall form a puzzle to jurists and legislators. 



i6i 



CHAPTER IV. 

October 20th. — Left Burdwan for Raneegunge. The 
train goes on careering upon the terra-firma as merrily 
as does a ship upon the sea. In it, a Hindoo is apt to 
feel the prophecies of the sage verified in the Rail — 
riding upon which has arrived the Kulkee Avatar of 
his Shasters, for the regeneration of the world. 

Little or no change as yet in the scenery about us. 
The same vegetation, the same paddy-fields, the same 
sugar-cane plantations, the same topes of bamboos and 
mangoes, and the same dark bushy villages fringing 
the horizon, meet the eye in all directions. The botany 
of Burdwan hardly exhibits any difference from the 
botany of Hooghly or Calcutta. But the atmosphere 
at once tells as bracing, and cool, and free from damp. 
The soil, too, shows a partial change — ^the soft alluvium 
has begun to cease, and in its place occurs the gravelly 
kioikur. The country is no more a dead flat, it has 
begun to rise, and the surface is broken in those slight 
undulations that indicate the first and farthest com- 
mencement of the far-off hills. 

The track of our progress then lay skirting the edge 

of the district of Beerbhoom — the mullo hhoomee of the 
VOL. r. 11 



1 62 Travels of a Hindoo, 

ancient Hindoos. Mankur is yet an insignificant town, 
and Paneeghur still more poor-looking. Lying thus 
far in the interior, these places were once ' out of hu- 
manity's reach.' This was, when a journey to these far 
away, and almostt hermetically- sealed, regions, exposed 
the traveller to ' disastrous chances' and * moving acci- 
dents' — to the perils of the Charybdis of wild beasts, or 
to the Scylla of thugs and marauders. Way-faring 
was then inevitable from way-laying. Highwaymen 
in squads infested the roads, and had their appointed 
haunts to lie in wait, spring upon a stray and benighted 
pedestrian, and fling his warm corpse into a neighbour- 
ing tank or roadside jungle. The very men of the 
police, in those days, laid aside their duties after dark, 
and acted as banditti. But, under the auspices of the 
Rail, towns and cities are springing up amidst the 
desert and upon the rock, — and security of life and pro- 
perty is pervading the length and breadth of the land. 
Less danger now befalls a man on the road than what 
threatened him within his own doors in the early part 
of the century. Hercules of old turned only the course 
of a river. The Rail turns the courses of men, mer- 
chandise^ and mind, all into new channels. * Of all 
inventions,' says Macaulay, *the alphabet and the 
printing pre^ alone excepted, those inventions which 
abridge distance have done most for the civilization of 
our species. Every improvement of the means of loco- 
motion benefits mankind morally and intellectually, as 
well as materially, and not only facilitates the inter- 
change of the various productions of nature and art. 



Transition to a sterile Country. 16^:^ 



but tends to remove national and provincial antipathies, 
and to bind together all the branches of the great 
human family.' 

Beyond Paneeghur, the district begins to savour of 
the jungle. The traveller here enters upon a new- 
order of things, and meets with a new regime in nature. 
First from the damp, and then from the dry, he has 
now attained a region which is decidedly sterile. No 
luxuriant vegetation to denote a soft locality — no other 
tree of an alluvial soil than a few straggling palms. 
The magnificent banyan, and the graceful cocoa, have 
long bidden their adieu, and now lag far — far behind. 
The transition is great from fertility to aridity. The 
soil, hard and kunkerry, and of a reddish tinge, de- 
noting the presence of iron, is covered chiefly with low 
jungles and thin stunted copsewood. The ground is 
broken into deeper undulations than before — appearing 
billowy with enormous earthy waves, here leaving a 
hollow, and there forming a swell with a magnificent 
sweep. 

To carry on the road in a level, they have cut through 
one of these swells or elevations, to the depth of thirty- 
six feet, and a mile in length. It is a stupendous work. 
On the right of this cutting is a gloomy tract of jungles 
extending to the Rajmahal Hills. In the heart of this 
desolate region is a romantic spot, wherein the Shivite 
Brahmins have planted the linga of Byjnath — dogging 
in the steps of the Buddhists to oust them from even 
their mountain-fastnesses. The god was being brought 
from Cailasa by Havana on his shoulders, to act as the 



164 Travels of a Hindoo, 

guardian deity of Lunka. But lie assumed an immove- 
able ponderosity by coming in contact with the earth 
when laid down by Ravana to relieve himself from the 
hands of Varuna, who had entered his stomach to excite 
the action of his kidneys, that he may be necessitated 
to drop the god, and disappointed of his promised de- 
liverance. Thus put up, Byjnath has become a famous 
pilgrimage. His present shrine is three hundred years 
old, and a mile in circumference. The god must be 
content only with our distant salutations. 

Out of the cut, the eye meets towards the horizon a 
faint blue wavy streak, which is a perfect novelty to a 
DUch(^\ Soon the dim and indistinct outline assumes 
the tangible form of detached spurs, and the towering 
Chutna and Beharinath clearly stand out in view — a 
welcome sight to him ' who long hath been in populous 
cities pent.' The land here is 360 feet higher than the 
level of the sea, and the two spurs are thrown off, like 
two out-scouts, to announce the beginning of the hills. 
From Khyrasole commence those coal-beds, which, say 
the Hindoos, are vestiges of their Marut Rajah's Yugya. 
By far more rational than this, is the version of the 
African Barotsees, in whose opinion coals are ' stones 
that burn.' Near Singarim, the phenomenon of a pet- 
rified forest reads a more valuable lecture upon the 
formation of our planet, than all the cosmogony of 
Menu. Raneegunge is then announced ; — and as one 
stands with his head projected out of the train, the 
infant town bursts on the sight from out an open and 
extensive plain, with its white -sheening edifices, the 



RaneegungCy — Terminus of the Railway, 165 

towering chimneys of its collieries, and the clustering 
huts of its bazar — looking like a garden in a wilder- 
ness, and throwing a lustre over the lonely valley of the 
Damooder. 

From the neighbourhood of the sea, the Rail has 
transported a whole town of men and merchandise, and 
set it down at the foot of the hills. The iron-horse also 
snorts as it goes, and slackens its pace in sight of the 
terminus of its journey. On arrival, it is unsaddled 
from its fetters, washed and groomed, and then led 
away to rest for fresh work on the morrow. 

No comfortable lodgings are yet procurable at Ra- 
neegunge. The project of a staging caravanserai here 
might be a profitable speculation, considering the large 
tide of men that pass through this gateway of Bengal. 
To an untravelled Calcutta Baboo, this want of accom- 
modation is a serious stumbling-block in the path of his 
journey. True, there is the Railway Hotel. But a 
native may read Baeon and Shakespeare, get over his 
religious prejudices, form political associations, and 
aspire to a seat in the legislature — he may do all these 
and many things more, but he cannot make up his 
mind to board at an English Hotel, or take up a house 
at Chowringhi. By his nature, a Hindoo is disposed 
to be in slippers. He feels, therefore, upon stilts before 
aliens. Ethnologically, he is the same with an English- 
man — both being of the Aryan-house. Morally and 
intellectually, he can easily Anglicize himself. Politi- 
cally, he may, sooner or later, be raised to an equality. 
But socially, in thought, habit, action, feelings, and 



1 66 Travels of a Hindoo, 

views of life, he must long measure the distance that 
exists geographically between him and the Englishman. 
If not travelling en grand Seigneur, a Hindoo gentle- 
man would rather choose to put up in a small shed 
pervious to the cold drafts of the night wind and the 
rays of the moon, than be restrained from indulging in 
the tenor of his habits in a foreign element. It was a 
lucky thing for us to have picked up the acquaintance 
of a fellow-Ditcher on the way, who offered us an 
asylum in his lodge. 

Raneegungo is on the confines of a civilized world 
— ^beyond commence the inhospitable jungles and the 
domains of barbarism. Few spots can surpass this in 
charming scenery and picturesque beauty. On the left 
tower those spurs which give the first glimpse of the 
classic Vindhoo-giris. To the right, spread forests 
terminating as far off as where the Ganges rolls down its 
mighty stream. Before, is the realm of the hill and 
dale — wood and jungle. The sky over-head is bright 
as a mirror. No dust or exhalation bedims the prospect. 
Through the smokeless atmosphere, the eye kens objects 
in the far distance. The town itself has a busy and 
bustling look with its shops, warehouses, and collieries. 
But it is j'ct too early to possess any feature of grandeur 
or opulence. As a new town, Eaneegunge should not 
have been allowed to be built in defiance of those 
sanitary rules and laws of hygiene, which lengthen 
the term of human life. The Indians need lessons in 
town-building, as much as they do in ship-building. 
The streets here are as narrow, crooked, and dirtv, as 



Raneegunge, — a Nourishing Seat of Trade, 167 

in all native towns. The shops are unsightly hovels, 
crowded together in higgledy-piggledy. Buildings 
deserving of the name there are none — excepting those 
of the Railway Company. The population consists of 
petty shopkeepers, coolies, and other labourers. No 
decent folk lives here — no permanent settler. The 
wives and daughters of the Santhals are seen hither 
from the neighbouring villages to buy salt, clothing, 
and trinkets. The rural dealers open a bazar under the 
trees. But after all, the change has been immense 
from a jungly- waste — from the haunt of bears and 
leopards into a flourishing seat of trade, yielding 
annually a quarter of a million. Raneegunge, making 
rapid advances under the auspices of the Railway, is 
destined in its progress to rival, if not outstrip, New- 
castle. At present it is the only town in India which 
supplies the nation'with mineral wealth — which sends out 
coals that propel steamers on the Ganges and on the 
Indian Ocean. Many such towns will rise hereafter to 
adorn the face of the coxmtry, and throw a lustre of 
opulence over the land. True, agriculture is India's 
legitimate source of wealth. But her vast mineral re- 
sources, once brought to notice, are not likely to be 
again neglected. Our forefathers were at one time not 
only the first agricultural, but also the first manufactur- 
ing and commercial nation in the world. In the same 
manner that Manchester now clothes the modern na- 
tions, did India clothe the ancient nations with its silks, 
muslin, and chintz — exciting the alarm of the Roman 
politicians to drain their empire of its wealth. Steel is 



1 68 Travels of a Hindoo, 

mentioned in the Periplus to have been an article of 
Indian export. But scarcely is any iron now smelted 
in the country, and our very nails, and fishing-hooks, 
and padlocks are imported from England. Ten miles 
to the north-west of Burdwan, the village of Bonepass 
was long famous for its excellent cutlery. But the 
families of its blacksmiths have either died off, or emi- 
grated, or merged into husbandmen. This passing off 
of the manufactures of our country into foreign hands, 
is the natural result of unsuccessful competition with 
superior intelligence and economy. India was the 
garden and granary of the world, when three-fourths 
of the globe were a waste and jungle, unutilized as is 
the interior of Africa. Her relative position has con- 
siderably altered, since vast continents have been dis- 
covered rivalling her in fertility, and forests have dis- 
appeared and gardens spread in every part of the two 
hemispheres. The nations of the world have abated in 
their demand for her produce, when America is pro- 
ducing better cotton, Mauritius and Brazil growing 
cheaper sugar, Russia supplying richer oil-seeds and 
stronger fibres, Italy and France producing finer silks, 
Persia growing opium, and Scotland attempting the 
manufactui^e of artificial saltpetre. How great is the 
contrast between the times, when sugar coidd be i)ro- 
cured in England only for medicine, and when her 
supplies of that article from various ports are now so 
vast, that she can do without a single pound from 
India. There was a time, when a pair of silk-stockings, 
now so coimnonly used by all classes, constituted a rarity 



Decline of Indian Manufacture, 169 

in the dress of Xing Henry VIII. Not two hundred 
years ago did a member of the House of Commons re- 
mark, that * the high wages paid in this country made 
it impossible for the English textures to maintain a 
competition with the produce of the Indian looms.' 
How in the interval has the state of things been re- 
versed, and the Indian weavers have been thrown out 
of the market. Day by day is the dominion of mind 
extending over matter, and the secrets of nature are 
brought to light to evolve the powers of the soil, and 
make nations depend upon their own resources. The 
present native cannot but choose to dress himself in 
Manchester calico, and use Birmingham hardware. 
But it is to be hoped that our sons and grandsons will 
emulate our ancestors to have every dhooty, every shirt, 
and every pugree made from the fabrics of Indian 
cotton manufactured by Indian mill-owners. The 
present Hindoo is a mere tiller of the soil, because he 
has no more capital, and no more intelligence* than to 
grow paddy, oil seeds, and jute. Bilt the increased 
knowledge, energy, and wealth of the Indians of the 
twentieth or twenty-first century, would enable them 
to follow both agriculture and manufactures, to develop 
the subterranean resources, to open mines and set up 
mills, to launch ships upon the ocean, and carry goods 
to the doors of the consumers in England and America. 
The collieries at Raneegunge afford quite a novel 
sight- seeing. The Hindoos of old knew of a great 
many things in heaven and earth, — but they had never 
dreamt of any such thing as geology in their philosophy. 



lyo Travels of a Hindoo, 

The science has not even a name in the great tome and 
encyclopoDclia of their shasters. The tree of knowledge 
had not then grown to a majestic size. Now it has put 
forth a thousand branches, and daughter stems have 
grown about the parent trunk. More than sixteen 
hundred people work at the Raneegunge coal-mines. 
These have been excavated to a depth of one hundred 
and thirty feet— nearly double the height of the Ochter- 
lony monument. The mines extend under the bed of 
the Damooder, and a traveller can proceed three miles, 
by torch-light, through them. The coal beds are 300 
feet in thickness.* 

The idea haunting the public mind about the Da- 
mooder, is that it is a stream of gigantic velocity, which 
throws down embankments, inundates regions for several 
miles, and carries away hundreds of towns and \Tlllages 
in the teeth of its current, — for all which it is distin- 

* The coals are so near the surface, as to be observed in all the 
the deep nullahs, and sometimes on the surface of the plains. The 
natives knew that tjiey burnt, although they made no use of them. 
The first mine at llaneeguuge was opened by Government in conjunc- 
tion with Mr Jones, 1812. Only a few shafts were sunk then. After 
twenty thousand rupees had been expended on it, without any return, 
the property was given away to Mr Jones, who conducted it in a 
small but profitable way, till his death in 1821 or 1822. It was then 
purchased by Captain James Stewart, who, with the assistance of 
Messrs Alexander and Co., got up a steam-engine to keep the mine 
clear of water. On the failure of that firm, the mine passed into the 
hands of our enterprising countryman, Baboo Dwarkanauth Tagore. 
It is now the property of the Bengal Coal Company. As the coal 
trade began to be lucrative, many people took up the speculation, and 
many were the forays between the different coal proprietors. The 
quantity of coals brought down in 1840 was about 15 lacs of maunds. 
In 1850 it was nearly its double, and in 18C0 it has become its quad- 
ruple. Raneegunge is so called from the Ranee of Burdwan, who 
had the proprietary rights vested in her name. 



Improvement in Indian Travelling, 171 

guislied as a Nud or masculine river, and justifies its 
name of the Insatiate Devourer. But up here at Ra- 
neegunge it is stripped of all such terrors, and flows a 
quiet and gentle stream — a * babbling brook,' with 
scarcely audible murmurs, awakening a train of the 
softest associations, as one takes a walk along its lonely 
and steepy banks. 

Made inquiries in vain for two carriages from the 
dawk- wallahs to depart on the morrow, so many folks 
were out this season on a holiday tour like ourselves. 
There are altogether four companies of them, — two 
European, one Hindoostanee, and one Bengalee, all of 
whom keep more gharries than horses. To ensure our- 
selves against disappointment and delay, it was arranged 
to have a gharry each from two of the companies. The 
dawk- wallahs should make hay while the sun shines, 
— their game is near its end. From post- runners first 
started by the Persian monarch Darius, to the post- 
riders introduced by the Mussulman emperors of India, 
it was a great step to improvement. The same step was 
made from travelling * in horrible boxes ycleped pal- 
kees,' to that by horse-dawk conveyances. In its 
day, people talked of this species of locomotion as a 
' decided improvement.' But before long, the days of 
all ' slow coaches ' are to be numbered in the past. 
Two or three years hence, the tide of men, now flowing 
through this channel, will have to be diverted to the 
grand pathway that is forming to connect the ends of 
the empire. The annual exodus of the Calcutta Baboos 
would then increase to a hundred-fold degree. People 



172 Travels of a H'mdoo, 

would be pouring in streams from all parts of the realm, 
to seek for a pleasant break to the monotony of their 
lives, and for a rational use of the holiday. All debasing 
amusements would then give way to the yearning for 
the lands memorable in history and song, and the in- 
dulgence in religious mummeries would be superseded 
by the pleasures of revelling in scenes and sights of 
nature — the Railway acting no less than the part of the 
Messiah. 

October 21st. — By nine o'clock this morning the 
gharries were ready at our doors. Made haste to pack 
up and start. This is emphatically the age of Progress. 
From the Railway, the next forward step should have 
been to sail careering through the regions of air, — * to 
paw the light winds, and gallop upon the storm.' But 
far from all that, we had to step into a dawk- gharry of 
the preceding generation^ and our fall was like Lucifer's 
fall from heaven, — a headlong plunge from the heights 
of civilization to the abyss of low Andamanese life. By 
travelling over a hundred and twenty miles in six hours, 
the feelings are wrought up to a high pitch. It is 
difficult afterwards to screw down the tone of the mind, 
and prepare it for a less speedy rate of travelliug. The 
exchange of the iron horse for one of flesh and blood, 
soon made itself apparent. The foretaste of luxury made 
the change a bitter sequel — which well nigh disj^osed us 
to believe in the philosophers who maintain the doctrine 
of the alternate progression and retrogression of man- 
kind. But endurance got the better of disagreeable- 
ness, and we began gradually to be reconciled to our 



The Grand Trunk Road. 173 

new mode of travelling, and to the tardiness of our pro- 
gress. 

The Grand Trunk Road — ^the s?noofh hoivling -green of 
Sir Charles Wood — the royal road of India, that is soon 
to be counted among by-gones — ^the great thoroughfare, 
which being metalled with hunker, earned to Lord Wm 
Bentinck the singularly inappropriate soubriquet of 
William the Conqueror — now lay extended before us in 
all its interminable length. In coming up by the train, 
often did it burst upon and retire from the sight — as *if 
bashful, yet impatient to be seen,' and to rival the rail 
in the race it runs. Dr Russel compares this road to ' a 
great white riband straight before us.' But more aptly it 
is to be fancied as a sacerdotal thread on the neck of 
India, which runs so slanting across the breadth of our 
peninsula. 

Marked change of aspect in the country westward 
of Raneegunge. The bold and the rugged here begin 
to make their appearance, and prepare one for the 
scene which awaits him in the coming world of moun- 
tains. Now a gloomy wood, and then a charming 
glade, diversify the romantic prospect. In the dry 
rocky beds of torrents, the coal crops out at the surface. 
Cultivation occurs only in small isolated patches, and 
villages at long intervals betoken a scanty popula- 
tion. The loaded waggons of a bullock-train, heavily 
' dragging their slow length along,' afforded the only 
sign of life, which imparted a strange animation to the 
desolate tract. The country is seen to rise perceptibly, 
and we are hastening every moment towards that great 



174 Travels of a Hindoo. 

mountainous centre of India, the geography of which 
is scarcely better known at this day, than when it was 
laid down as an 'unexplored' terra-incognita upon 
Arrowsmith's old maps. 

The dawk stages occur at every fifth or sixth mile. 
The difierent companies have differently-coloured car- 
riages, to enable their men along the road to make them 
out from a distance. The coachee also sounds his 
bugle from a mile off, to keep the men on the alert, and 
the traveller finds everything ready pending his arrival. 
Before long, however, the truth breaks in upon him, 
and he has to exclaim ' a horse, a horse, a kingdom for 
a horse ! ' Never had an equine animal such a high 
bid. But even King Richard is outbidden by a horse- 
dawk traveller in India. They furnished us with fair 
samples to begin from Raneegimge. But on arrival at 
the fourth stage, two animals were led out — the one, a 
wretched tat, diminutive as a donkey — the other, a 
tall ricketty Rosinante. The donkey fell to our lot. 
In vain did the poor creature struggle to move the 
gharry. These were not the days of old Jupiter to 
pity and relieve animals in distress. Not unless some 
half a dozen men had come to his assistance, could the 
brute be enabled to make a start. Luckily, the road 
had a slight descent, and the impetus once given, the 
weight of the carriage pressing upon the animal, away 
he went sweating, foaming, and breathing thick and 
quick, like an asthmatic patient. The other fellow 
was a cunning chap. He understood the portentous 
meaning of the bugle sound, and was loath to quit the 



Route by Nyamutpore, 175 

compound. His repugnance had to be overcome by a 
taste of the cudgel. But the shafts no sooner touched 
his bides than he began to play fresh pranks. The 
animal's obstinacy was proof against alternate coaxing 
and cudgelling for several minutes, till at last he chose 
to dart at a speed full of risk to limb and life. The 
manner in which these horses are kept and worked out 
of their lives, is cruelty reduced to a science. They are 
as ill-fed as ill-housed. Mere withered shrubs, and a 
few old boughs made up into a shed, form all their pro- 
tection from the sun and rain. 

Passing Nyamutpore, the route lies across a plateau, 
which affords the vision a sweep over an extensive 
tract. No more the Beharinath — it has receded and 
hid its diminished head. There rose now loftier peaks 
to attract our notice. The ravine below stretched for 
many a league. It frowned with one dense and dark 
mass of foliage. Coming events are said to cast their 
shadows before. The dismal prospect looming in the 
distance^ was but the precursor of those inhospitable 
regions, — and ' deserts idle,' the rock-boimd barriers of 
which have been burst asunder by the Grand Trunk 
Road. In a little time the jungles gave us a sample of 
their hideous character. To pass through them, it is to 
pass as it were through the penalty of an ordeal, unless 
you choose to be in a mood to muse over the scene, and 

• 

to make it the theme for a Byronic rhapsody. But in- 
stead of the poetic fever, we were well nigh catching a 
jungle fever. The view was closed on all sides by trees 
standing behind trees in a graduated succession. No 



176 Travels of a Hindoo, 

siglit or sound, no trace of a human abode, no ' wooing 
breeze,' not a leaf moved, and the stewing heat roasted 
us to the very bones. 

As sunshine is after dark, as liberty is after a 
dungeon, so is the charming spot that succeeds the wild 
and woody tract — the * leafy labyrinth ' from which we 
have emerged. The valley of the Barakur is a region 
of exceeding loveliness, — a * weird land ' of mountains, 
rocks, meadows, villages, and rivulets, all combining to 
form a most diversified and most romantic prospect. 
The wild mountain scenery, the towering majesty of 
the rocks, the solemn forests, and the headlong torrents, 
are contemplated with an interest which can never 
be derived through *the spectacles of books.' 

From the country of flat plains, of alluvial soil, of 
slimy rivers, of miry roads, of inundated fields, and of ' 
bogs, fens, and morasses, we are now in an alpine dis- 
trict — in the land of the hill and dale, of the sandstone 
and gneiss, of the saul and mahua. On all sides and 
in all quarters, does the eye meet only mountain, rock, 
precipice, waterfall, and forest, in all their wild and 
fantastic forms. Yonder arc three independent hillocks 
— ^looking like little urchins of the mountains. Farther 
north is a wavy ridge resembling a faint blue line of 
low descending clouds. To the south are the Pachcte 
Hills, that present the hazy outlines of a colossal mass 
towering to the height of 2000 feet. The rich valley 
has the beauty of a smiling Eden. On one of the 
hillocks is the shrine of a female divinity — the guardian 
Devi of the Santhals. Ilcr image has a turned face awry. 



The River Barakur, 177 

The Barakur is a hill-stream, which fills and flows 
only during the rains. In this season it is a shallow 
channel, scarcely fit for the meanest craft to navigate. ' 
The water at the ford is not even two feet deep, and our 
gharries had to be dragged by coolies across the bed of 
the stream. A bridge is being constructed to dispense 
with the necessity of a ferry. But it is not an easy job 
to sink a shaft, where the real bed lies several feet be- 
low the sands on the surface. Close by the ford are 
two sandstone temples, in the style of an old mut, or 
pagoda of Southern India. These temples are dedicated 
to Shiva, whose lingas have been put up by a devotee 
of the Hindoo faith, to denote the presence of his re- 
ligion in the heart of these wild- fastnesses. 

The Barakur possesses no history — no antecedents 
— no name in the annals of mankind. It has a far 
difierent destiny from that of the Ganges, the Jumna, 
and the Godavery. Its banks have never witnessed a 
human event, have never echoed to the song of a poet, 
or to the sound of a warrior's arms. The stream has 
no past — nor shall it have any future. It can never be 
utilized into a highway for conmierce. It has flowed on 
for ages, and shall flow on for all its days, a desert river 
through desert solitudes. Banks without inhabitants 
look upon waters without vessels. The lonely stream 
is a blank to the civilized world — a dead letter in the 
creation. 

A little serai, however, owes its name to the Bara- 
kur. Though not a bona-fide Santhal village, it abounds 

with many men, women, and children of that race, 
VOL. I. 12 



178 Travels of a Hindoo, 

who are seen to work at the causeway. The dealers 
and grocers here are all Bengalees from the lowlands. 
The place is important enough to have a police chowkey. 
To the local worthy of the Darogah are we indebted for 
the modicum of statistics appertaining to his jurisdic- 
tion. Thirty years ago, the country hereabouts was an 
unknown tract, abandoned to the wild beasts and the 
savage aborigines. The Grand Trunk Road has acted 
the part of Open Sesame to these regions. Formerly 
tigers prowled here in numbers. Now, they are seen 
once or twice in a twelvemonth, — though they lurk not 
far off in the neighbouring woods. The Santhal is an 
expert archer. He is very brave when confronted with 
wild animals. His bow is an enormous concern, which 
he lies on his back to draw, setting his feet against the 
centre of the bow, and drawing the string with both 
his hands. The bear falls an easy prey to his well- 
planted arrow. A hare is knocked over when at full 
speed. Birds on the wing are no sooner marked, than 
off flics the peacock-feathered arrow to bring them 
down. A short time ago, there had come a leopard 
which had so concealed itself in the bush, that only a 
part of its hind leg could be seen. This was enough, 
and the brute was cleverly shot through the brains. 
The causeway over the river is building slowly through 
the last half a dozen years. It has to be suspended 
during the rains, when the stream gets several feet 
deep, and nothing can withstand the prodigious force 
of its current. Great alarm prevailed here during the 
Santhal insurrection. "Watchmen had been set round 



Barakur. — Advantages of its Situation, 179 

to prevent the savages from extending their operations 
south of the Trunk Road, and exciting the whole 
aboriginal population to rise in arras. In the great 
hurly-burly, which has made the name of Sepoy hateful 
to the whole world, the chimeras of a neighbouring 
petty chieftain created here * a tempest in a tea-pot/ 

Hardly five-and-twenty shops now make up the 
bazar at Barakur. Grain is chiefly vended in them, 
and salt imported from the Lower Provinces. Small 
quantities of oil-seeds, tobacco^ ghee, and other local 
products are also exposed for sale. The same that 
Raneegunge was twenty-five years ago, is Barakur now 
— a solitary outpost of civilization in a region of bar- 
barians. But the place bids fair to be a mart of great 
trading activity — to be a considerable outlet for the pro- 
ducts of the hill-regions. The local advantages of its 
situation, to be heightened the more by the extension of 
the Railway, would attract here large numbers of men 
for business. The spot is particularly suited for manu- 
factories of lac-dye and shell-lac. The raw material 
can be worked upon here at a cheap value. Paddy and 
sugar-cane are now sparingly grown for want of a 
market, but increased demand would give the impetus 
to an increased cultivation. Hides, horns, and bees- 
wax can be had here in abundance. Timber, which 
has become a valuable commodity in the Indian market, 
can be largely procured from these districts. There are 
fine pasture lands, and cattle might be reared with 
great success. The mineral wealth of the region is in- 
exhaustible. Scarcely any land-owner now appreciates 



1 80 Travels of a Hindoo. 

the ores of iron or the veins of copper lying in his 
estate, and takes them into the account in estimating 
the value of his property. But time shall give to the 
Indians their own Birmingham and their own Sheffield. 
The future of the Jungle Mehals presents a glowing 
picture to the imagination. The route now passes 
through wastes, heaths, and forests. Two hundred 
years hence, its sides would be dotted with villages and 
manufacturing towns. Many thousands of square miles, 
which are now overgrown with woods, and given up to 
the bear and leopard, would appear hereafter a succes- 
sion of orchards, corn-fields, tea-gardens, and sugar- 
plantations. In a region of twenty miles in circum- 
ference, there are seen now a few straggling huts of 
reeds and thatches. The traveller in the twentieth 
century would find all this space covered with neat 
bungalows, pleasant country-seats, warehouses, and 
shops. Macaulay has painted the present of England. 
Young Bengal anticipates the prospective of India. 

The serpi, deriving its name from the Barakur, is 
not without some of the features of a Santhal village. 
The site is upon a rising ground^ by the side of a pure 
and gushing hill-stream, watering a finely-wooded 
valley. Cossij)orc, on the ITooglily, is not a more de- 
lightful spot than Barakur on the river of that name. 

The serai is built of long huts, having that peculiar 
appearance which distinguishes the cabin of a Santhal 
from the homestall of a Bengal peasant. The liuls 
are some thirty or forty in nmnber, so arranged, iacing 
each other in two rows, as to form a pretty street one 



A Santhal Village, i8i 

house deep. To almost every house is attached a pig- 
sty, a cattle- shed, and a dovecot. Surrounding the 
village are patches of luxuriant cultivation denoting 
the fertility of a virgin soil. The Santhal does not 
live wedged together in a mass, excluding sunshine and 
ventilation, and killing himself by typhoids and cholera. 
He seems to have intuitive ideas of sanitation. His 
mode of location eminently illustrates the principles of 
health carried out in practice. A Santhal village is 
not without interesting features in an Indian landscape 
— a Santhal clearance has * a park-like appearance.'* 

The Santhal is a curious specimen of the himian 
species — an interesting subject for the ethnologist. He 
belongs to the Tamulian family of mankind — a race 
existing from pre-historic, perhaps antediluvian, ages, 

* The following is the sketch of a Santhal village. *Sundam 
Kulan is a fine large Santhal village, situate close under the hills, and 
surrounded by sheets of mustard cultivation. The village is about 
one mile in length ; being one long street one house deep, with about 
one hundred family enclosures ; each enclosure occupying from four 
to five log- wood houses. These enclosures are made with the green 
boughs of the sakua ; planted in the ground and tied together they 
keep each family distinct from its neighbours ; they generally contain 
a Santhal and his wife, several married children and their families ; 
a pig-sty, buffalo-shed, and a dove-cot; a wooden stand holds the 
water-pots, the water from which is used for drinking or cooking ; 
there is also a rude wooden press for expressing oil from the mustard 
seed. In a comer of the yard there will be a plough, or a couple of 
solid- wheeled carts, whilst numbers of pigs and poultry are seen in 
every direction. Each of these enclosures contains on an average ten 
souls, thus giving a population of one thousand to Sundani. The 
street is planted on each side with the sohajna^ which tree is a great 
favourite with the Santhal. The numerous pig-styes and great 
abundance of poultry in the village proclaim the absence of caste 
amongst this free and unshackled and un-priest-ridden tribe.' — Notes 
vpon a Tour through the Rajniahl HillSy hy Captain Walter S. 
Sherwill, Revenvs Surveyor, 



1 82 Travels of a Hindoo. 

and the progenitors of which were the ancients of our 
ancient Aryans. He is the descendant of a cognate 
branch of those who are styled in the oldest hjTnns of 
the Rig- Veda, a work forty centuries old, under the 
denomination of Dasyas — afterwards the Asuras of the 
Poorans. The *dark complexion, and flat nose, and 
small eyes* of the Vedic Dasyas, are yet visible in their 
posterity of the nineteenth century. The Santhal has 
the honour of being aboriginal to India. It was his 
forefathers who first occupied and inhabited the land, 
then known under the name of Colar.* From them 
the country was usurped by invaders from the A nana 
of the Greek geographers. The Aryan followers of 
Brahma first settled in the Punjab — ^the Sup fa Sindhoo 
of the Vedas, and the Hiipta-Hindo of the Zenda- 
vesta. In the course of ages, they gradually moved 
down the valleys of the Jumna and Ganges, driving 
before them the ancestors of the present Bheels, Coles, 
and Santhals, to retire into the woods and mountains. 
There the race has lived and lingered for ages — there 
the race lives and lingers to this day. 

The aboriginal Santhal has marked distinctions 
from an Aryan Hindoo. He has a difierent facial and 
craniological conformation. The dialect he speaks bears 
not the remotest affinity with the language which forms 
the primal root of human speech from the Bay of 
Bengal to the Baltic, and the banks of the Shannon. 
The Santhal is a naked savage, who knows only to hew 

* This was the earliest name of India in the opinion of Col. Wil- 
ford. See his * Comjjarative Es»ay on tlie Ancient Geoffrr/j/hf/ of 
India.' 



Desci'iption of the Santhals. 183 

wood and till the soil. He has neither any alphabet 
nor any arithmetic. He has no architecture, none of 
the useful or ornamental arts. If his race were swept 
to-day from the earth, there would remain to-morrow 
no monument, no laws, no literature, to record the past 
existence of his nation. The poor fellow has no recog- 
nized entity among mankind, is beyond the ' pale of 
civilization,' is excluded from Hhe comity of nations' 
— and his very existence is ignored. 

Those living at Barakur are not easily made out 
from the Bengalees sojourning amongst them. The 
same dark skin, the same naked habits, and the same 
squalid poverty, mark as much the rustic Hindoo as the 
primitive Santhal. Hybrid. manners and speech have 
tainted the purity of the aboriginal type, and local 
intermixture has made faint the line of demarcation 
separating the two races. In going through the bazar 
on foot, we attracted a group of the savages, who spoke 
to us in their native tongue, mingled with Bengalee 
phrases and Hindoostanee words. They appeared to have 
fallen into many of the habits of their Bengalee neigh- 
bours, to have taken to begging that they did not know 
before, and to have lost the honest simplicity and no- 
bility of the true barbarian. In a place like this, situ- 
ated on the highroad, the influx of travellers cannot 
fail to produce its usual work of demoralization. 

But after all, the Santhal is not to be missed, with 
his unfamiliar form, his strong original features, and 
his non- Hindoo peculiarities. He is singled out by his 
short make, his thick lips, high cheek-bones, flat nose, 



184 Travels of a Hindoo, 



and small eyes. He lias little or no beard — ^he is a 
youth all his life, and his chin never knows the use of 
a razor. The savage is also a fop. He is very fond of 
wearing long hair, of dressing, plaiting, and gathering 
it up in a knot over the head, and fastening in the 
ends with a wooden comb. His dandyism has the best 
apology in the periwig-pated miniature of Johnson, or 
in the curly-haired portraits of our ex-judges on the 
walls of the Court-house. The raiment of a Santhal is 
a mere strip of cloth to hide his nudity, passed not over 
his waist, but between his legs, and fastened to a hair 
or cotton string that goes round the loins. The lan- 
guage he speaks is an unintelligible gibberish, quite 
un-Sanscrit in its element. He has no caste, like the 
Hindoo, no prejudice against the substantial good things 
of life, such as meat and drink. He has his buffaloes, 
his cows, his kids, his swine, his poultry, and his 
pigeons. All these by turns furnish his board with 
good cheer. In case of need, he does not refuse to 
make snakes, frogs, ants, and rats exercise his gastro- 
nomic powers. He is merry-hearted by nature, and 
carouses himself with the Pachui, He has his own 
balls and suppers, and dances with his wives and com- 
rades the wild hornpipe of his race.* There was one 

* *A very extensive dance which I witnessed in the hills took 
place by torch-light, at midnight, during the month of April, at which 
about five thousand Santhals were present ; these dances are per- 
fonned by night and day ; at the present one about four hundred women 
danced at the same time. A lofty stage is erected in an open plain, 
upon which a few men seat themselves, they appear to act as guides 
or masters of the ceremony ; radiating from this stage, Mhich forms 
the centre of the dance, are numerous strings composed of from 



A Santhal Dance, 185 

young gallant fellow, whom we saw to lead his youthful 
wife by the hand on the road, chatting, fondling, and 
laughing as they proceeded. They stopped to look at 
our new faces, and we in turn gazed upon them as an 
interesting pair. The Santhal keeps a fine poultry, 
and has also his brewery. This was a great tempta- 
tion to our doctor, who was for testing the hospitality of 
the race. None of us had tasted any food since morning, 
and a Santhal fully came within Dr Johnson's de- 
finition of man being a cooking animal. In this far-away 
wild tract, what could have been more desirable than 
his well-stocked poultry to turn into a good account. 
It made the doctor take up the cue to exhaust a lecture 
half an hour long. He had little need of his harangue 
to impress upon us the necessity for something im- 
mediate to turn into chyle and blood, and put the 
system in its equilibrium. There was, besides, to have 
been derived the pleasure of a peep at Santhal life — a 
drinking-bout with the barbarian in his own home. 

twenty to thirty women, who holding each other by the waistband, 
their right shoulder, arm, and breast bare, hair highly ornamented 
with flowers or with bundles of Tusser silk dyed red, dance to the 
maddest and wildest of music drawn from monkey-skin covered 
drums, pipes, and flutes ; and as they dance, their positions and pos- 
tures, which are most absurd, are guided and prompted by the male 
musicians who dance in front of and facing the women ; the mu- 
sicians throw themselves into indecent and most ludicrous positions, 
shouting and capering and screaming like mad-men ; and as they 
have tall peacock feathers tied round their heads and are very drunk, 
the scene is a most extraordinary one. The women chant as they 
dance, and keep very good time in their dancing by beating their 
heels on the ground ; the whole body of dancers take about one hour 
to complete the circuit of the central stage, as the progressive motion 
is considerably retarded by a constant retrogi'essive motion. Kelays 
of fresh women are always at hand to relieve the tired ones. — 
Ciiptaiii Shenvill. 



i86 Travels of a Hindoo, 

His Pachui was certainly a new thing under the sun, 
and was worth atrial as much as Runjeet Sing's famous 
pearl-powdered potation. But the lawyer, brought up 
among the technicalities of ' declarations' and * replica- 
tions,' of * rebutters' and 'surrebutters,' had no time 
for romancing. He put in his veto to the proposal of 
the medico, who retired in no good humour, drawing 
up his face into a doleful pucker. 

The Santhalinee, in her youth, is not an uninterest- 
ing creature. She has the short womanly stature, and 
a delicately-moulded form. Her complexion is a shade 
darker than the brown. She has long black locks, and 
large soft eyes, which give a pleasing expression to her 
countenance. She is cheerful in manners, and has suffi- 
cient delicacy to make her admired and beloved. Though 
she lacks many an item to constitute her a beauty in 
the strict Aryan sense of that term, she has about her 
a sort of undefinable charm, which the fastidious may not 
be able to see. To an enthusiast like Chateaubriand 
she might serve as the model of an Atalanta. She 
is a sultana in her own kingdom, and deserves the 
homage of a sylvan goddess in her native woodlands. 
The Santhalinee who attracted our notice was ap- 
parently of the age of twenty-five. She was inclined 
to be fat, and had gentle features. In the fashion of a 
Bengalee woman, she wore a dhooty passed round her 
waist over to the shoulders. But, like them, she did not 
cover her head, nor veil her face. She was an unassum- 
ing creature who knew only the modesty of nature. 
The woman's hair was parted in the forelock, and it 



A Santhalinee, 187 



was oiled, plaited, and tied up in a knot over the nape. 
She had decked her person with many brass chains and 
necklaces of beads. From her ears hung more than 
half-a-dozen earrings of brass. On her arms and feet 
were heavy bell-metal ornaments. Indeed, it was a 
sight to see the sable beauty in her complete equipment. 
Her air of simple innocence, her courteous smile, and 
her artless expression of countenance, gave her an in- 
teresting appearance. So long the ice had not been 
broken, and she silently watched our ways and move- 
ments. But when the doctor opened a conversation, 
she talked freely and familiarly, appearing to feel no 
inconvenience under the heavy load of her ornaments.* 
She pointed out her house at a little distance, in which 
she was willing to entertain our Chaor-Durvesh party. 
It was a pity that we had not some beads or trinkets 
with UB to make her a present ; and failing that, we 
have taken the pains to do her justice in these pages. 

* Formed in benevolence of nature, 

Obliging, modest, gay, and mild. 

Woman 's the same endearing creature 

In courtly town and savage wild.' 

It puts, however, a man's philosophy to the proof to 
appreciate the Santhal matrons, who look ' so withered 

* * I had a quantity of those ornaments weighed, and found that 
the bracelets fluctuated from two to four pounds ; the anklets four 
pounds each ; and as a fully-equipped belle carries two anklets and 
twelve bracelets, and a necklace weighing a pound, the total weight 
of ornaments carried on her person amounts to thirty-four pounds^ 
of bell metal, — a greater weight than one of our drawing-room belles 
could well lift. Almost every woman, in comfortable circumstances, 
carries twelve pounds' weight of brass ornaments.' — Cajjtain Shermll. 



1 88 Travels of a Hindoo. 

and 80 wild in their attire/ that they might stand for 
the weird sisters of Shakespeare. 

The Tamulian Santhal is neither so savage as the 
bear that climbs to eat the fruit of his mahua tree, nor 
so degraded as the ape that havocs his plantain garden, 
as is erroneously supposed by the outside world. In 
his social life is found much that is pleasing and hope- 
ful. The Santhal is an agriculturist. Before his axe 
the forest disappears, and is converted into a fertile 
tract. He is not only industrious, but to some extent 
even intelligent. He knows how to choose soil, and to 
study the weather. He understands the rotation of 
crops. He has invented his own plough and cart, and 
has learnt to build his own log-hut. He knows how to 
express oil — ^has his granary, his dairy, his poultry, 
and his brewery. He is a grist, who is fond of his 
wives and children, and lives with his boys and 
daughters, their wives and husbands, all about him — 
imparting to his mode of living a patriarchal ap- 
pearance, which carries one back to the days of that 
society * when the patriarch sat in the door of his tent, 
and called in the passing traveller under his roof.' 
Indeed, he keeps a zenana of several wives, like a true 
Oriental, imitating therein his neighbours the wild 
elephant, the buffalo, and the monkey. But he is not 
an idle, good-for-nought fellow, to throw the heaviest 
part of manual labour on the weaker sex. Rather he is 
chevalier enough to hold womankind in deference, to 
treat his wife as a * better half He woos a maiden 
with presents, and next marries her by giving a feast 



The Jungle Mehals. 189 

and a sacrifice. He brings her home to do only in-door 
work, to control only household matters. She is 
watched with care when enceinte, and on the birth of a 
child is made to keep to her house for five days, at- 
tended upon by her husband. The Santhalinee, too, 
has her own code-feminine y^ which teaches her to repro- 
bate the conduct of an erring sister, to be a faithful 
and loving partner of the house of her lord, to be a 
good house-wife, and also a market-going woman. She 
enjoys an equality with men, and is not doomed to wear 
her life out in a perpetual widowhood, like her Hindoo 
sisters of the plain. 

In the estimation of our native mahajuns, the bound- 
less tract of the Jungle Mehals is of less account than 
the two or three square miles into which are crowded 
the banking-houses, the warehouses, and the shipping 
of Hautcola and Burrabazar. But the few Bengalee 
traders who have cast in their lots amongst the barba- 
rians, and who exchange in the bi-weekly fairs and 
markets of those people salt and cotton goods, brass- 
pots and trinkets, for lac, dammer, coriander seed, and 

* It is curious to know that even the female of an ourang-outang 
has a sense of the pudor. * The adult female which Sir Del' Casse 
exhibited some months ago in Calcutta was a much larger and more 
powerful beast, and had a quite different expression of countenance. 
She was also, on the whole, good-tempered, but uncertain and danger- 
ous to handle, whith prevented my taking her dimensions. I con- 
sider her to be of the race termed Murs Ihiviblxi by Mr Brooke. A 
remarkable trait of this individual was her decided sense of imdor : 
however she might lie or roll about, she never failed to use one foot 
for purposes of concealment, holding therein a small piece of board 
generally, or in default of this a wisp of straw, or whatever she could 
seize on for the purpose.' — Svpplevientary Report of the Curator of 
the Zoological Department^ J. A. S.^ July^ No. 1847. 



T90 Travels of a Hindoo, 



many other forest-produce, sometimes reap a profit of 
one hundred per cent, on their transactions. The sons 
of nature still sell their goods by the bulk, and not by 
any weight. They make their computation by the help 
of knots on a string. It concerns not a Santhal now 
more than to provide himself with food, raiment, and a 
log-hut. The taste for dainties, for fine tissues, and 
for jewels, is yet unknown to him. He has scarcely 
any idea of property, and knows not what it is to leave 
behind a heritage. He has yet no commercial life, and 
beyond simple bartering has hardly learnt to make any 
other bargain. He must take a long time yet to know 
Soobhunkur^s arithmetic, to make a practical use of 
figures on paper, and to be a match for the men of a 
bank-note world.* 

No other form of civil polity is known to the San- 
thals than the commonwealth of clans and townships, 
acknowledging a chief elected by the community. They 
have no statutory laws and provisions for the well-being 
and conservation of society, and yet exhibit among 
themselves, in an eminent degree, that social order 
which is the aim of all civilized legislation, and which 
is the greatest blessing of the social state. This * har- 
mony out of discord' is the result of acting upon the 
dictates of that common-sense law — that natural equity 
the principles of which are implanted in every human 

• Captain Sherwill thus describes a Santhal fair. Besides criin 
of various kinds, there was a fair display of sugar-cane salt 1 
damrner or rosin, brass-pots and bangles, beads, tobacco suffar \^JtV 
tables, chilies, tamarinds, and spices ; potatoes, onions, smJ^ov o^f f^ 
tliread, and cloth, the latter in great abundance ' ^ » s^r, cotton, 



Morality and Religion of the Santhal, 191 

breast. It is a harmony which has deceived poKtical en- 
thusiasts into an admiration of the savage life. Though 
the Santhal is a practical republican in acting upon the 
principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, though 
he has a nervous horror of servitude and all foreign 
work, he lives out after all only his animal existence. 
His intellectual life is a void. He has no other care or 
ambition than to keep his body and soul together, to 
wander free as the air he breathes, and then to be missed 
' one morn on the accustomed hill,' and heard of no more. 
To complete the* picture of the Santhal, by a few 
words on his morality and religion. Naked, and snake - 
eating, and unlettered as he is, the Santhal, too, has a 
code of honour and morality. He is distinguished for 
nothing so much as his truthfulness. The civilized 
man hates lying, but the pure-minded and straight- 
forward Santhal knows not lying.* He is no more 
truth-loving than he is inoffensive, grateful, and hos- 
pitable. The present of an empty bottle has in his 
eyes the value of the present of a kingdom. It is an 
unearthly rarity, for the gift of which his thankfulness 
has no bounds. The virtues of the untaught savage 
are few, but genuine. His religion, likewise, is pure 
and unsophisticated. No atheistical doubts ever come 
across his mind. He professes no doctrinal creed. His 

* All laws of evidence, all rules and regulations for swearing, 
w^hetherupon the Bible, or by the Gunga- water, or on solemn affinnation 
and oath, proclaim only the lying propensity of civilized men. The 
Santhal is spared all this humiliating legislation. He has, indeed, 
' swearing by the tiger's skin, or by salt, but swearing at all is un- 
pardonable, for the truth by a Santhal is held sacred.' 



192 Travels of a Hhidoo. 



faith, founded on the monitions of his conscience, is as 
unostentatious and sincere as is the faith of a child in 
his Creator. Originally, the religion of the aborigines 
must have been that Sabianism which untutored man is 
suggested to adopt by his imagination rather than his 
reason. It is by the contact of intercourse with the 
followers of Hindooism that corruptions appear to have 
crept into their faith. The persecuted Buddhists, who 
sought refuge in their mountain-fastnesses, were the 
first to initiate them into the belief of that Beedoo 
Gossain — the corruption of Buddha Gossain — whom 
they adore as the most Supreme Deity. The propa- 
gandist Shivites and Sactos, next penetrating into their 
jungles, proselytized them to the worship of the Puranic 
divinities. To them must be traced the introduction of 
the Churuk Poojah, or swinging festival, among the 
Santhals, — a contagion certainly caught from the Ben- 
galees, of all people the most idolatrous upon the earth. 
There is no trace of the worship of Krishna among the 
savages. Sentimental Vishnuism is beyond the com- 
prehension of the undeveloped understandings and feel- 
ings of the rude Santhal. The fetishism of the abori- 
ginal races is thought to have prevailed from an ante- 
Ilindoo antiquity. It is sujDjDoscd to form the basis of 
that idolatry which is the disgrace of tlie Hindoo 
nation. But it is obvious from tlic Rig-Yeda, that the 
early Dasyas practised no religion, worshi2)ped no gods, 
and performed no rites and sacrifices. Their irrelio-ious- 
ness was the great feature which discriminated tlieiu 
from the Aryas. 



Inhabitants of the Mountains. 193 

In the Santhals of Barakur one fails not to recognize 
their identity with those uncouth and squalid beings 
who are seen to work in the ditches of our metropolis. 
As natural to an inferior race of people under transition, 
the Santhal no more imitates the Bengalee than does 
Young Bengal imitate the energy and enterprise of the 
Anglo-Saxon. 

Objects of curiosity and interest as the Santhals are, 
they but afford a partial and unsatisfactory sight — a 
mere glimpse of the tribe who inhabit at Barakur. To 
view them in the untainted purity of their type, the 
traveller must pass through the barriers of those 
moimtains which gird and isolate them from all man- 
kind. He must penetrate into their wild fastnesses, 
and climb upon the alpine heights of their abode, to 
behold groups of bond fide Paharees occupying the sides 
and summits of the hills — some basking their bodies in 
the sun, some hallooing to scare away a bear, or roam- 
ing to get a shot at a deer — others sauntering among 
the woods in search of honey-combs, wild yams, and 
other edible roots : the women husking the com, or ex- 
pressing oil from the mustard-seed, or cooking house- 
hold food : the young maidens performing the duties of 
their toilette, or walking or drinking toddy with their 
intended bridegrooms : and the children either sprawl- 
ing upon the earth, or reposing in the grass-hammock. 
The Santhal who dwells in the valley is somewhat a 
nomad. He has no local attachments. To-day he sets 
himself down at this spot: to-morrow he is off to 
another region, with all that he has upon earth, wife, 

VOL. I. 13 



1 04 Travels of a Hindoo. 



children, and relatives around him. He" is, therefore, 
looked upon as an interloper. The genuine, intact, and 
orthodox Paharee loves privacy, and keeps aloof upon 
his mountain eyrie. The adventurous traveller, who 
seeks this extraordinary creature in his highland abode, 
finds himself in a strange land. His new face at first 
alarms the community. But no sooner does familiarity 
thaw away the first impressions, than the stranger has 
the whole village with him, and is alike welcome to the 
men, the women, and the children. 

How appropriately has Bishop Heber styled the 
Paharees as * Gaels of the East ' — little anticipating 
that Gael would turn out into Coel or Cole ; and that 
the two tribes, apparently seeming to be different from 
each other by the remoteness of their situation, are in 
truth branches of the same genealogical tree. 

The Hill Tribes of India are yet obscurely known. 
As representatives of a race anterior to the Aryan 
Hindoos, the study of their ethnologic characteristics 
promises to furnish valuable data for the physical his- 
tory of mankind. In a large measure, the customs of 
these people, although slightly tinctured withJBuddhism 
and Brahminism, but free from every taint of Mussul- 
man intermixture, remain up to this moment purely 
conventional to themselves. This, together with their 
antiquities and traditions, forms a rich mine that may 
be worked upon to throw light on the Tamulian period 
of Indian history. Such highly interesting results 
can be hoped to be obtained only by laborious re- 
searches amongst the people. To pursue those re- 



The Backwoods of Bengal, 195 

searches is feasible now. Our fathers and grandfathers 
knew as Kttle of the Paharees living in the backwoods 
of Bengal, as in our day is known of the Bushmen of 
Africa, or the Maories of New Zealand. In their days 
few men travelled so far as Raneegunge. All beyond 
Raneegunge was thought to be chaos, or * rubbish 
thrown aside when the magnificent fabric of the world 
was created.' The region loomed dimly, through an 
obscuring and distorting haze of fears and prejudices, 
as a hideous wilderness, full only of crags and glens, 
woods and wastes, savage beasts and still more savage 
bipeds. Solitary pilgrims returning from Byjnath 
spread only tales of pathless jungles, of swarms 
of bears and tigers, of thugs and marauders, of wild 
and irreligious Mletchas, and of a thousand other priva- 
tions. This was the picture seen through the wrong 
end of the telescope. Now that picture has been seen 
through the right end. A royal road has been cut 
through the rocks and jungles ; bridges have been 
flung over the courses of the rivulets ; serais and 
bungalows have succeeded to the dens of beasts and 
robbers ; chowkies and cutcherries have sprung up 
where the footsteps of man dared not penetrate ; and 
sanatories have been founded where malaria engendered 
the most deadly diseases. The apprehensions haunting 
the minds of our ancestors have subsided into idle 
fancies. Rather the new realm has turned out to be a 
world of riches, of poetry, and of enchantment. The 
feeling of awe and aversion towards it has to be suc- 
ceeded by one of allurement. The unknown treasures 



ig6 Travels of a Hindoo. 

with whicli it abounds, cannot fail to attract the atten- 
tion of capitalists, and make it * the future scene of the 
mineral and metallic enterprise for the country/ There 
shall flock into it holiday tourists to enjoy a peep at 
romantic nature, — sketchers and photographers to gaze 
upon * gigantic walls of rock, tapestried with the wild 
foliage and flowers,^ — lovers of sport to hunt the gaour 
in wooded valleys, — invalids to recruit their health 
upon the breezy hill-tops, — and savans to study a new 
race of men, a new ornithology, and a new botany. 
Sooner or later, when this reflux of the public feeling 
shall come to pass — when all classes of men shall turn 
their steps to this realm, Santhal men and manners, 
Santhal lineage and speech, and Santhal traditions and 
superstitions, will have the best opportunity for investi- 
gation. Sincfe forty .centuries, the descendants of the 
ancient Dasyas and Simyas of the Rig- Veda have lived 
on unknown to the civilized world. But before many 
generations pass away they are destined to emerge into 
notice, to occupy a place in the history of our country, 
and to rise to an honourable position in the \dew of 
nations.* 

To resume the tale of our journey. The day was 
near its end. His Phcebusship had sorely tried our 
patience all the day long, and had not failed to be a 
drawback to our pushing on and on. But not so is a 
hungry stomach, which takes away the edge of the 
appetite for the picturesque, and leaves you in a humour 

* The spirit of this account has heen borrowed from Macaulay's 
celebrated description of the Higldandi*. 



Taldangah, — a Daivk-Bungalow. 197 

to be pleased only with a dinner. The doctor was 
writhing in mortification to have missed the good cheer 
of a Santhal cabin. Thirst and hunger, therefore, de- 
cided us to halt at Taldangah, The bungalow there 
stood nearly a mile up from the Barakur ; and in walk- 
ing this distance, the bit of exercise proved an agree- 
able vicissitude after a long pack-up in the gharry. 
On arrival at the bungalow the khitmutgar made his 
appearance with a salaam, followed by the other assist- 
ants at his heels. He was ordered to prepare a simple 
dinner of rice and curried fowl, and the men forthwith 
wended on their ways to make themselves deserving of 
a douceur. Our servants also began to dress their own 
meal. The coachmen and syces picketted the horses to 
graze on a fine sward, while fires were lighted by them, 
and their cauldrons sent forth volumes of savouiy steam. 
The scene resembled a little bivouac. 

These dawk-bungalows are_, in point of fact, miniature 
roadside inns on the European model. The principal 
building of masonry, one story high, with a high- 
peaked roof of thatch or tiles, stands in the middle of a 
green plot. It consists of a suite of three or four 
rooms, one of which is appropriated to the purposes of 
a bath. In a corner of the compound lie the kitchen 
and outhouses, and adjoining to them is a well, generally 
of excellent water. There are beddings and furnitures 
nearly as good as in the houses of decent townsfolk. 
The eatables and drinkables are good enough for nu- 
tritives in their way. The Asiatic has nothing to 
show like these bungalows. There is no table in a 



198 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Mahomedan serai, to whicli the traveller can go up as a 
guest for entertainment — it is good only for laying the 
head under a roof at night. In the time of Aurungzebe, 
Sultan Aazim, and his son Bedr Bukht, rode on post 
from Dacca to Agra, over an excellent road. But they 
had to live on the way only on bread and dried fruits. 
One day during the journey they wanted to have the 
treat of a little keechery. It was brought from a serai 
in a large wooden bowl ; and although they were very 
hungry, they could not bring themselves to taste it out 
of such a vessel. The Hindoo, again, is a still more 
imsociable creature, who scarcely knows the pleasure of 
association at meals. He is accustomed to cook his own 
dinner, and eat it in solitary separation, against the 
principle of human gregariousness. On the road, there- 
fore, his inn at the best is either a rude hut of matting, 
or the shade of a peepul or mango tree. It is not 
known how were Asoca's durmshalas on the ancient high- 
roads of India. Caste-prejudices then were as much a 
bar to the cultivation of sociableness as in our day, and 
those houses of public entertainment could scarcely 
have abounded with the plenty and comfort of a modern 
table d'hote. 

The south-western extremity of the compound was 
occupied by two or three long brick- walled sheds, with 
high-mounted roofs of tiles. These, we were given to 
imderstand, had been hastily put up to accommodate 
those detachments of European troops who had to move 
up in a constant succession during the late rebellion. 
Doubtless, native soldiers have passed up and down 



An Evening in the Hill Country. 199 

this road many a time. But never have such neat and 
comfortable sheds been placed at their disposal on the 
way. Aliens from a colder latitude certainly require a 
greater attention than the children of the soil. But 
invidious distinctions in the same profession beget a 
grudge that should be avoided. 

It was near nightfall. As the sun went down 
behind the hills, its receding rays were gradually with- 
drawn from the landscape. The great moimds of nature 
threw their dark shadows far across the plain, whUe 
the dying sunbeams yet lingered to play upon their 
tops. Over the pure, cloudless sky, was the glow of 
the last light. The breeze, bland and perfumed by the 
odour of the wild flowers, came in soft cool gushes. It 
was one of those cabn and delightful evenings which we 
went out to enjoy by spreading a carpet on the green 
sward surrounding the bungalow. To heighten the 
enjoyment by a sauce piquante, we had each passed round 
to us a glass of that beverage, which was brewed not 
from the Vedic Soma plant, but from the English 
hops, — accompanied by that sovereign luxury, that 
never-failing source of refreshment to the weary — the 
invaluable Hooka. Shortly after dark, dinner was an- 
nounced. Indeed, the lighted room, the matted floor, 
the neat chairs, the white table-cloth, the knives, forks, 
plates, dishes, and napkins set on the table, had no- 
where produced the same effect on our minds, as in the 
solitary public-house that gives welcome to the wanderer 
in the wilderness of Taldangah. How miserable in 
comparison is a native serai ! Our countrymen are 



200 Travels of a Hindoo, 

never so open to a charge of barbarism, as when they 
are judged of by the mean and squalid huts composing 
their inns. The voice of unanimity called upon the 
doctor to take the chair — a tavern chair that was 
Johnson's 'throne of human felicity/ Our worthy 
tradesman now did the justice that was expected from 
his obesity. The sensible doctor took to a veteran fowl 
for cargo sufficient to outlast his voyage of a long 
wintry night. The spare attorney was judicious, as he 
is wont to be. To speak of our own self, a chronic 
headache has long cured us of the glutton, and we can 
never venture to load our stomach beyond its registered 
tonnage. The meal being over, the travellers' book 
was produced, to note down the hours of our entry and 
exit. Our fares were then paid down with an additional 
gratuity to each of the men. The charge of an extra 
half-rupee per head was also coimted down, as each 
traveller, alighting at the bungalow, has to contribute 
that sum to its repair. 

Though the day had been warm enough, the night 
in these highlands was agreeably cold. Packing our- 
selves up in the gharry this time, was felt to be rather 
snug than otherwise. To exclude the artificial draughts 
of air, created by the motion of the carriage, we drew 
close the doors, keeping open the shutters, to cast a look 
now and then at the landscape. Our route lay through 
a country full of jimgles, the gloom of which was 
thickened by the shadows of the hills. The moon, 
sunk down near the horizon, cast only those 'pale 
glimpses,' which made 'darkness visible.' On either 



A Night Journey. 201 

hand the scenery was completely wrapped up in the 
triple shades of Hecate, the hills, and the forests. No 
choice was left to us, but to lie extended in fidl length, 
and consign ourselves to sleep.* 

* The country thus missed is particularly interesting in a geologi- 
cal point of view. From fossils obtained here, Ederest thinks * these 
eminences were once, like Europe, islands of primitive rocks, rising 
in the middle of a large ocean ; the debris formed beds of humus out 
of which vegetables grew and formed the present soil.' The twigs of 
the hitea frondosa are covered here with the * lurid red tears of the 
lac' There is a Deputy Magistrate at Bagsama, and a Dawk Chowkey 
at Gobindpore for postal correspondence from the wilderness. 



202 



CHAPTER V. 

October 22nd, — Found ourselves at daybreak in the 
very heart and core of the hill- regions — upon the high- 
, est plateau of Upper Bengal. From its very foot we 
now gazed upon the Parisnath — covered all over with 
a gorgeous vegetation, and standing in the * wild pomp 
of its mountain majesty/ The head was tipped with 
the first rays of the sun, and 'jocund day stood tiptoe 
upon the misty top/ Face to face to Parisnath stands 
a range of hills, vying its sovereign height with as 
proud an eminence. Beyond them peep the diminished 
heads of others, tiU at last the farthest ridge seems to 
have melted away in the horizon. 

Woods crowding upon woods, hills over hills, 
A surging scene, and only limited 
By the blue distance. — Mrs Hemans. 

The valley below spreads out into a beautiful amphi- 
theatre, and the little \^llage nestled in its bosom looks 
like 'beauty sleeping on the lap of horror.' 

To one accustomed only to the monotonous flat of 
alluvial plains the first sight of this sublime mountain 
scenery is an epoch in his life, the romantic panorama 
realizing the truth of the best simile in the English 



Topechanchee. 203 



literature. 'Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps 
arise/ is at once daguerreotyped on the mind. It is a 
scene fully coming under the head of undescribables, and 
defying the human alphabet to represent the infinite 
varieties of nature. The space enclosed by walls of 
everlasting rock, with nothing above but ' the brave 
overhanging firmament,' and * the majestical roof fret- 
ted with golden fire,^ is better calculated to inspire feel- 
ings of devotion, than the proudest temple that was ever 
dedicated to the worship of the Almighty, — and to up- 
lift the mind ' from nature up to nature's God.' 

Topechanchee, situated at the foot of Parisnath, forms 
a scene of bustle and vivacity, little expected in a nook 
of the forest which had echoed only to the cries of the 
savage and the bowlings of the wild beasts. The peo- 
ple residing here are a lower order of the Beharese, who 
exhibit a strange mixture of the state of nature and the 
state of civilization. Fields of paddy and mustard 
spread round the spot. Topechanchee is now the border 
village on the Grand Trunk Road, that Chass was on 
the old route via Hazareebaug, — the village where 
Bengal and Behar on each other gaze, and where the 
traveller has to pass on from one to the other province. 
Hence the popular saying of the Hindoostanees, 

Jab Jtoi par hojata Chanty 
Tab chharta nmhi ghar ki as : 

The man who crosses Chass, leaves hope behind of re- 
turning to his home. How the rude epigram gives an 
abbreviated exposition of the climatology of the * In- 
ferno ^ of Bengal. 



204 Travels of a Hindoo, 

It was at Topechanchee, then, that we were at last 
to bid an adieu to the dear old Bengal of our nativity, 
and' pass on to the land of ancient Magadha, the king- 
dom of Jarasindha, the scene of Chandra-Gupta's and 
Asoca's sovereignty, the cradle of Buddhism, the coun- 
try which once sent a religion from its bosom to the 
Chinese, and now sends its opium to the very same 
people — the * bane and antidote ' together. 

History does not record where ancient Gour parted 
from Magadha. In the times of the Moguls the fam- 
ous Terriagurry Pass formed the westernmost boundary 
of Bengal Proper. Beyond, commenced the territories 
of Hindoostan — the Brahmarishi or Punyabhumi of 
Menu. 

No sooner had the gharry been examined, the wheels 
greased, the coachman and groom changed, and the 
whole concern pronoimced road-worthy, than we pre- 
pared to leave Topechanchee, and proceed along the foot 
of the hills. As far to the right as eye could reach, 
extended one stupendous rampart of stone — ^peak after 
peak appearing in a rapid succession, and assuming 
new phases of beauty and sublimity according as the 
curves in the road altered the prospect. There is sel- 
dom any pleasure so solemn as that derived from clouds 
and tempests lowering on the hill-tops. But no chance 
of its realization could exist in the weather of a calm 
October morning. However, a few wreaths of smoke 
from the huts of the neighbouring bazar had collected 
themselves in a body about the middle of the hills, and 
resting there, floated upon the atmosphere like thin 



Vegetation of the Mountains, 205 

clouds. Rather than acknowledge to have altogether 
missed the sight, this was lustily contended by one of 
the party to have partially realized the wished-for 
spectacle. 

It is now immediately after the rains, and from the 
bottom to the brow the hills are clothed with one mass 
of verdure and foliage. The bluff rock is scarcely seen 
to peep from out the green mantle. Two months hence 
the trees will have to shake off their leaves, and the 
naked rocks wdll then be seen as huge skeletons of an 
antediluvian world. The luxuriant vegetation is all 
wild. I^ot a single familiar tree can the eye make out. 
It may be that, as in the animal so in the vegetable 
world, there is one class which is wild and inimical, and 
there is the other which is domestic and useful. There 
are as wild trees as there are savage beasts ; and as we 
have the domesticated horse and cow, so have we the 
domesticated mango, plantain, cocoa-nut, and tamarind. 
Nature may have intended such a classification in the 
creation, and her wisdom is inscrutable. 

At the foot of the hills the trees are clearly visible 
in all their actual dimensions and details. Towards 
the middle they appear to have dwindled away into low 
shrubberies. And at the top the eye meets only an 
undistinguishable mass of green. Mere passing travel- 
lers as we are, and laymen with * a completely anti- 
geometrical head,' this is enough to give us a rough 
idea of the altitude of the hills. The highest peak has 
been computed to be, near 5000 feet above the level of 
the sea, and about 4000 feet from its base. It entered 



2o6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

into the head of one of us to propose putting up this 
computation on the topmost crest, with a view to en- 
able the future traveller, two or three thousand years 
hence, to know the additional height acquired by the 
mountain in the lapse of time from the date hereof. 
But he gave up his crotchet on recollection that the 
English or Bengalee may become as obsolete as the 
Assyrian Cuneiform to the generations of that day. 
The hills are said ' to grow with their growth,' and the 
Himalayas of to-day must have been mere pop-hills 
in the infancy of the earth. 

From a box six feet by three, the passing traveller 
sees the stupendous Parisnath lift up its head to heaven. 
This is seeing it merely in its disenchanted, as-it-is, and 
matter-of-fact state — without any speculation in the 
cold eyes. To enjoy the view in the best of humours, 
he should be in a reverie like that into which Mirza 
fell on the hills of Bagdad — ^he should transport him- 
self in his imagination to the days of India in the 
eighth and ninth centuries. Then would the length 
and the breadth of our peninsula appear to him as one 
vast field of hot contention between the Brahmins, the 
Buddhists, and the Jains — the first refuting, persecut 
ing, and chasing away the two latter to the woods and 
mountains. Then would these desolate hill-regions 
appear to him as enlivened with shrines and monas- 
teries, and peopled with monks and contemplative re- 
ligionists. And then would these silent vales be heard 
by him as resounding with the hymns of chanting 
priests and the voices of preaching worshippers. Such 



Brahmins^ Buddhists^ and Jains. 207 

things were where all is now wild and without a trace 
of habitation. The land was completely lost to the 
civilized world for more than a thousand years — its 
name and history were forgotten ; and until the open- 
ing of the Grand Trunk Road, except to solitary pil- 
grims, its very site was unknown. 

The Jews have their Sinai — ^the Jains their Paris- 
nath. The hill is named after the principal demi-god 
of that sect. Its foimder meant to have steered the same 
middle course between Brahminism and Buddhism, 
that Nanuk Shah intended in a later age — to have the 
Hindoos and Mussulmans amalgamated by the doctrines 
of Sikh-ism. But the Brahmins can never *bear a 
brother near the throne.' They were touched in the 
sore point by their antagonists inculcating against a 
hereditary priesthood, and could have no rest nor 
respite until they had driven their dangerous adver- 
saries from every city, town, and haunt of men what- 
soever. 

In a council of twenty-four, forming a divine hier- 
archy, Parisnath is the head. He and his colleagues, 
however, are so absorbed in meditation as to be blind 
and deaf to the concerns of this nether world. It is no 
wonder then that their religion should have failed, when 
deities, like Eastern despots, never chose to open their 
ears and eyes to the affairs of humanity. Their god- 
ships must excuse us this bit of reflection. 

There is now no trace of the Buddhists — they 
have been chased clean from India. The Jains still 
hold a footing in the land, — the last ray of a flickering 



2o8 Travels of a Hindoo, 

religion having long been cherished by them in the 
depths of caverns or on the heights of mountains, 

* The world forgetting, by the world forgot,' 

till under better auspices it has begun to flourish with 
a renewed vitality. 

In the range the eastern peak is the most noted. 
On its top Parisnath obtained nirvan or emancipation 
from matter. The spot is especially sacred for that 
circumstance, and forms the holiest place of worship to 
the sect. Upon that spot is a small but handsome 
temple, with marble floors and open verandahs. In 
passing along is caught a glimpse of the white dome of 
this temple from the valley below, like a speck on the 
brow of the hill. 

It would make a pleasant excursion to go up to see 
this temple, and also enjoy the views commanded from 
the top of the hill. The cost is little, and there is a 
pathway from this side to make the ascent. In intro- 
ducing the reader to the hills, he is not the less surely 
than sorely to regret his being landed only at their foot, 
and not carried up to their top — to feast his eyes thence 
on the long sweep of hills and valleys, apparently tossed 
about in the wildest confusion, and yet all of them 
settled into the perfect loveliness of Nature^ s most ex- 
quisite handiwork. Such a diversion had been omitted 
to be provided for in the programme of our journey, and 
we have to warn the reader against a mistake that lost 
to us a rich treat — and tasting the pleasures of the up- 
hill work of old Sisyphus. 



Jain Temple and Reseiwoir, 209 

By itself, the Jain temple is not a little curious 
object for sight-seeing. It crowns the hill only some 
800 feet below the highest summit. The site is on 
the top of a detached peak protected on three sides by 
protruding masses of rock thrown out from the hill. 
Parisnath must have had a fine poetic taste to pitch upon 
this spot for a romantic seclusion, and an undisturbed 
communion with the heavens. He was born in popul- 
ous Benares, and he died here upon this lonely moun- 
tain-top. The pilgrims, climbing to see the last scene 
of his life and labours, are shown his foot-prints, mark- 
ing the spot where he obtained his nirvan. The foot- 
prints are quite Brobdignagian, — from which not 
Gulliver only, but any man might be in imminent 
danger of being trodden to death. The space for half 
a mile in circumference is cleared of all forest, and 
covered with temples and platforms of masonry. There 
is a reservoir of water, without which the residence of 
the priests and monks would have been quite out of the 
question. This reservoir is an artificial excavation, and 
a proof that Buddhists could as well ' call forth waters 
from the barren rock.' The few human beings who live 
here isolated from all mankind are amply compensated 
by that fine health which is owed to a pure atmosphere. 
An intercourse, like a still under-current, passes 
throughout the year with the outside world, and sup- 
plies the religieuses perched above * the smoke and stir' 
of this world with many of the dainties of life. The 
temple is about 100 years old. The reservoir must be of 
anterior date — probably of the age of Parisnath himself. 

VOL. I. 14 



21 o Travels of a Hindoo. 

The season of pilgrimage is in March, when a great 
mela is held in the depths of this wilderness. Crowds of 
pilgrims, sometimes numbering 100,000 persons, then 
resort hither from distant parts of the Peninsula, and 
their annual offerings accumulate a large wealth at the 
shrine. The route from the north, lying through dry- 
beds of torrents, and amid gloomy glens over- arched 
with foliage, is less steep and precipitous, and has been 
preferred from remote times. Immediately at the foot 
of the hill is a forest-clearance, which forms the en- 
camping ground of the pilgrims. This spot is called 
Modoobun. Here also are some grand temples, in the 
principal of which is a black image of Parisnath. Over 
the god, a cobra spreads out its seven expanded heads as 
a canopy. There are other deities— Khetropal, which 
may be identified with the Nirsingha of the Brahmins — 
and Chukreswari and Pudmabatti, with Doorga and 
Luchmee. A large aged banyan — a sacred tree with 
the Jains — is also an interesting object. The principal 
temple has been built by Juggut Sett — the famous Jain 
banker at Moorshedabad, of great wealth and influence 
in the days of Clive. 

From all yesterday we have been accomplishing our 
journey with horses, each of which might furnish a 
subject for comment. How audacious the dawk-com- 
panies are to run such horses within ken and under the 
very cognisance of Parisnath. Lucky is it for them, 
that his god ship never opens his eyes to their doings. * 

* Non-cruelty to animals is the grand doctrine both of the Bud- 
dhists and Jains. In a remarkable mnnud or document bearino" the 



Doomree, — a rugged Country. 2ii 

Doomree is situated in a valley shut in by lofty 
rocks. The spot is rich in natural beauties. The 
country hereabouts is wilder and more rugged than any 
we have yet seen. It is one continued series of hills and 
dales, rocks and ravines, and crags and caverns — agi- 
tated and torn all over, as if nature had been under a 
mighty convulsion. Here and there, the road passes 
over wide-yawning ravines, through which during the 
rains sweep down headlong torrents to form the far-off 
rivers. Detached boulders lie strewn in all directions, 
and woods of a dark imbrowned hue cover every inch of 
the land — forming those abodes of everlasting shade 
which are scarcely penetrated by the sun. In the 
distance rise monstrous masses that nature has piled one 
upon another in every mode of shapeless desolation. 
The table-land has reached here its highest elevation. 
This labyrinth of hills and jungles is not without its own 
attractions. The sublime and the awful largely enter 
into the ingredients of its character. But the sublime 
and the awful at last tire by their unbroken monotony. 
One misses the charm of a variegated landscape — the 
'cottage peeping through the trees' — the * waving corn- 
fields ' — the * lowing herds ' — ^the * whistling plough- 
boy ' — all, in short, to awaken interest or sympathy. 
The scene, no doubt, has its grandeur and magnificence 

bona fide seal of Akber, which has recently come to light, the name 
under which Parisnath was known in that emperor's age appears to 
have been Somed Sekhur. This whole hill, together with others in 
Behar and Guzerat, was granted to and bestowed upon Heer Bijoy 
Soor Acharj^a, the then pontiff of the Setamburry Jain sect, by Akber. 
They were given in perpetuity ; and there is an especial clause pro- 
hibiting the killing of animals either on, below, or about the hills. 



212 Travels of a Hindoo, 

— but it is a solitary grandeur, and a * dread magnifi- 
cence.' 

The hills always have a rich treat in store in a good 
first- view — when they break upon one for the first time 
in all their unrivalled sublimity. There they stand, 
ever the same as when the eyes of the first man per- 
mitted to have a sight of them gazed upon their majestic 
heights, defying winds and storms, and even old Time 
himself. But gradually they take ofi* the edge of the 
appetite, till at last we feel to have * supped full on hor- 
rors ' and hills. 

To this day, as some thirty years ago, when Jacque- 
mont travelled through these regions, * there is scarcely 
to be observed a house in a day's journey.' The wild 
tract is not fit for the abode of man. Not even the poor 
Santhal thinks of rearing a hut in thesfe rocky soKtudes. 
Particular spots remain perhaps in the same state as ou 
the day of creation. Ages have rolled away, and yet 
the steps of man have not trod upon them, nor the stroke 
of the spade hath changed a single item in their fea- 
tures. 

No doubt that, in the abundance of vegetation all 
around us, there are thousands of shrubs and trees, the 
use of which is yet unknown to man. How is a modern 
botanist at a loss to reconcile with old Moses' account 
all this vegetation, the seeds of which alone would have 
freighted Noah's whole ark. Near the foot of the hills 
was a solitary man cutting away wood for fuel. He has 
nearly filled up a cart-load. It has cost him only his 
labour, and he shall go to the next bazar to sell the 



A Tiger, and a Bear, 213 

wood for the necessaries of life. Of the waste-lands 
spreading on all sides, mnch is now suffered to be com- 
mon property by use, if not by right. No bunkur 
revenue is derived from them yet. The proprietors, 
therefore, connive at the trespasses of cattle browzing, 
or cutting wood, or hunting for birds or honey-combs 
on the lands, the value of which they would fain see to 
have been increased by such trespasses. 

Though the bears and tigers formerly infesting these 
regions have greatly diminished, still the traveller is not 
without apprehensions of their turning up in his path. 
Not many years ago, a number of passengers were com- 
ing down the road after dark. There was a Hindoo- 
stanee, who happened to go ahead of the company by a 
few steps, carrying slung across his shoulders a lotah 
fastened to his club. A tiger, lurking near the road, 
suddenly sprang upon and ran off with him to the woods. 
It was vain to have attempted a rescue in the dark 
night ; and the poor Hindoostanee was carried away — 
the clink of his brass-pot being distinctly heard, as he 
was dragged to the bush over the rugged ground. 

Only last year, an up-country gentleman fell in with 
a bear. It was a hot day, and the animal had been 
tempted from his den by the outside cool air of the even- 
ing. The brute lay straight across the road. Luckily it 
was not quite dark, and Bruin could be distinctly seen 
stretched out in his hideous length, from some fifty or 
sixty yards off. The horse shied, and would not move 
forward a step. The coachman began to blow hard on 
his horn. But Bruin cared not to obstruct the public 



214 Travels of a Hindoo. 

thoroughfare. Finding the shaggy monster loath to 
remove, the gentleman, at his wits' end, thought proper 
to get up on the top of the gharry, to make himself 
scarce from the reach of the foe. In this ticklish position, 
at a gloomy hour, and amid a gloomy scene, he remained 
at a stand-still for full twenty minutes. It pleased at 
last Mr Bruin to get himself upon his legs, and shaking 
the dust off from his body, to go slowly past down the 
slope of the road, when way was made to speed on as 
fast as possible. 

Rarely, however, arc such unwelcome tenants of the 
forest now encounteied on the road. The frequent re- 
sort of men and merchandise have scared them away to 
the more impervious thickets and deep-retired dells, 
which they are seldom tempted to quit. The tender 
care of a paternal Government for the safety o f travellers 
has placed chowkeys and serais at intervals of every two 
or three miles. There are scouts to watch at night from 
machaims, or cock-lofts, posted along the road. On these 
machauns is perched a tiny hut of reeds and leaves, 
sufficient to admit a man and his bedding — and up 
there creeps the paharadar after dusk to spend the night 
in keeping a look-out after the travellers. * Indeed, 
law and police, trade and industry, do far more than 
people of romantic dispositions will readily admit, to 
develop in our minds a sense of the wilder beauties of 
nature. A traveller must be freed from all apprehen- 
sion of being killed or starved before he can be charmed 
by the bold outlines and rich tints of the hills.' It shall 
be a great day for India, when the progress of cultiva- 



A Halting-place, — Dangerous Road. 215 

tion shall extirpate the races of its wild beasts, and 
when the last tiger roaming the land shall be slain and 
preserved as a curiosity for posterity. 

The mile-stones give as it were a tongue to dis- 
tance, and the Electric Telegraph, passing through the 
heart of the forest, carries our voice * from Indus to the 
pole.' 

After running for twenty miles in a continuous suc- 
cession, the hills recede for a time, and are succeeded 
by an open valley, in which a line of huts is honoured 
with the name of a serai. Halted to bathe and break- 
fast. The third tank on this side of Raneegunge is 
seen in this valley. Towards evening the hills again 
made their appearance. The alternation of steeps and 
ravines that now succeeded made the journey very toil- 
some, and not a little dangerous. The doctor and the 
tradesman, coming together in one gharry, narrowly 
escaped a serious accident. They were coming down 
the road over a declivity. The gharry, which at such 
places rolls with a partial impetus of its own, forced the 
horse out of the road, where it had a bend. Fortun- 
ately, the driver had presence of mind to rein up the 
horse, and the servants on the top gave the alarm to 
jump out of the carriage. Had the gharry rolled into 
the bottom of the ravine, it would have been all over 
with our friends. Quite a similar accident befell a na- 
tive gentleman coming up last year from Calcutta to 
Benares. He was travelling with his wife and child 
in the same gharry. Somehow or other it got upset, 
and slided down into the ravine. Indeed, nobody was 



2i6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

actually killed, but the poor lady rose witli a fractured 
shoulder-bone, and the child severely bruised. It is 
particularly unsafe to cross the causeways slightly pro- 
tected by fences of stone loosely piled up, not even 
breast-high, and one foot deep. A prank of the horse 
on one of these causeways is sure to terminate in a fatal 
plunge into the awful chasm below. 

Some of the spurs, abutting almost on the very road, 
seemed to obstruct the passage in the distance. It was 
near the close of the day. But a sunset among the 
hills is very different from a sunset behind the fantastic 
clouds of an autumn evening in the horizon of Calcutta. 
There, the parting day 

* Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues 
With a new colour as it gasps away, 
The last still loveliest, till — 'tis gone — and all is gray.' 

Here, the sun no sooner sinks behind the hills than 
they throw their tall shadows on the ground, and ex- 
cluding every ray, envelop the scene in a sudden gloom. 
The luminary is not allowed to cast * a longing, linger- 
ing look behind.^ He sinks plumb down, and all is 
dark in a minute or two. 

Arrived at Belcoo]}ee an hour after nightfall. The 
place is interesting for some hot- springs, which lie 
about 300 yards from the road. A Brahmin volun- 
teered to conduct us to the spot. But night was not 
the proper time for exploration through the jungles. 
In the opinion of our valiant tradesman, to alight 
from the carriage in the jungles after dark is to step 
right into the maw of a tiger. 



Burhee, — The Dunwah Pass, zi^j 

The Burrakutta is ' a little naiad which mourns her 
impoverished urn all summer long.' The * magnificent 
topes of mango, banyan, and peepul trees ' at Bursote 
are probably the remains of an ancient seat of the 
Buddhists or Jains. 

Burhee is the principal station in the hill-districts 
along the Grand Trunk Road. But we arrived there 
too late in the night to see anything. Our friends had 
again fallen a great way off in the rear. I^ot till after 
an hour was heard the smack upon smack of a whip in 
the distance, when their gharry approached most like 
an apparition in the pale moonlight. 

From Burhee the road lies over the Dunwah Pass. 
The horse needs here the aid of coolies to push up the 
carriage from its back. The Pass is 1525 feet above 
the level of the sea. Few prospects surpass in grandeur 
and loveliness the prospect which is enjoyed from the 
heights of Dunwah, and one must take care not to miss 
it, like ourselves. 

October 23. — Rising early at dawn, we found our- 
selves to have cleared the Pass. Out of it, we were 
also out of the jurisdiction of the hills. These now 
appeared to have receded far away in the distance. 
The table-land has terminated here. Stopping to look 
back, the elevated plateau struck the eye as an impreg- 
nable stronghold of nature. The Dunwah Pass is 
from this side the only inlet — the Thermopylao — to this 
inaccessible region. It has lain locked up, while the 
neighbouring valleys and plains have acknowledged the 
dominion of man for centuries. I^ot until pinched by 



2i8 Travels of a Hindoo, 

necessity would an overgrown population seek to utilize 
the resources of this realm. One man to the square 
mile is at most its present population. 

Falling into the open country, the traveller pro- 
ceeds through the historic lands of ancient Maghada. 
Under this name the province was known for a series 
of ages. It first occurs so early as in the Atharvan- 
Ved,* and is met with so late as the seventh century, 
when Chinese pilgrims speak of it under the scarcely 
intelligible name of Moki-a-to, The present appellation 
of Behar is from Vihara, or a monastery of the Bud- 
dhists, whose most reputed convent was at Behar — the 
place where Buddha obtained the law. 

Out of the rocky barriers, the country, sloping away 
imperceptibly, at last resumes its dead level character. 
Rich prospects open to the view. But no traditions 
lend a charm to a journey through these regions, — no 
townships of consequence occur, — no spot furnishes a 
legend, — and no river is consecrated by a reminiscence. 
The plains announce themselves by the crops standing 
upon them. Bengal is the great country of paddy, Be- 
har of pulse. 

Reached Barrak — where are a bungalow and a serai. 
The country hereabouts is a flat open plain. But the 
scarcity of water is a serious evil, which is apparent in 
the scanty cultivation, and the clotted hairs and dirty 

* * We give Takman (a disease) as a messenger, as a treasure to 
the Gandharis, the Mujavats, to the Angas and Maghadas' Atharvan- 
Ved. The Angas had their abode about Bhagulpore, and the Magha- 
das in South Behar. At the time this hymn was composed the coun- 
trj' beyond the Soane was considered not strictly Indian. 



Barrak, 219 

habiliments of the people. Not a trace of that element 
is to be discovered for many miles around. The moun- 
tain-torrents draining the tract leave off their beds after 
the rains. There occur no fens and marshes, as in the 
sea-level districts of Lower Bengal. Cranes and herons 
are birds unknown here. In the whole serai is a single 
well. The crowd round this well presents an animated 
scene. Groups of tall Beharee women pass and repass 
there the whole day with pitchers on their heads. 
Their foreheads are painted with vermilion, and adorned 
with rows of coins and beads. One or two of them 
might not be unworthy of a reputation for beauty. 

Nearly a whole poultry was killed this momiiig to 
get up our breakfast — the sacrifice well chiming with 
the ceremonies of this Hindoo Nohomce-Foojah day. 
Beyond the mountains and deserts that separate us, 
our relatives and friends are sacrificing goats and buffa- 
loes to Doorga ; we here are imitating Socrates in pay- 
ing off the debt of fowls. 

The arrival of a doctor had got bruited in the serai. 
As we sat on a charpoy, enjoying the luxury of a lei- 
surely smoke at the hooka after breakfast, a man made 
his appearance with a little boy on his arms. The 
poor child, hardly two years old, was turned sallow, 
and wasted with a fever almost to the very bones. He 
had several amulets and spells hanging from his neck. 
No pains had been spared to treat the boy with all the 
medicines in the pharmacopa3ia of the local peasantry. 
The doctor, patiently listening to the long tale of the 
father, examined the boy, and, after making the dia- 



220 Travels of a Hindoo, 

gnosis, was sorry to have only a few grains of quinine 
to spare to the boy. 

There are about two hundred shops and huts in the 
serai, all facing each other in two long rows on the two 
sides of the road. The population is some three to four 
hundred souls. You are now in Behar, and hardly ob- 
serve a man with a bare head, or hear anybody speak 
a word of the Bengalee language. Poverty of food 
easily accounts for the ill-developed growth of the men 
living in this mountainous clime. From a failure of 
the rains, they express grave apprehensions of a famine. 
Coarse rice, wheat, pulse, raw sugar, and one or two 
kinds of vegetable, are all the items in the commissariat 
of this bazar. 

Outwardly, the Goolsukree and Lelajan are now 
quite dry streams. But an under-current always per- 
colates their sandy beds. Four or five years ago the 
bridge over the Lelajan went down by the weight of a 
large number of pilgrims passing over it to Jugger- 
nauth, and to this day it is remaining in its broken 
state. The Lelajan is better known to the Hindoo 
imder the name of Fulgoo. The banished Rama, with 
Seeta and Luchmun, had retired to a spot upon its 
bank. One day, when the two brothers had gone out 
to the forest in search of fruit, a voice from heaven 
warned their deceased father to make haste to Swerga, 
or otherwise the gates of that blessed region would be 
fast barred and bolted against his approach. In all 
haste the spirit of Rajah Dasarath repaired to the spot 
where his sons lived in exile. Finding them away 



Legend of the River Lelajan, 221 

from home, he requested Seeta to do the needful in 
their absence. The daughter-in-law hesitated to offici- 
ate in the duty of her husband. She, moreover, pleaded 
the absolute want of the wherewithal to perform the 
ceremony. But Dasarath urged the jeopardy of his 
beatitude as the consequence of delay, and enjoined 
Seeta to offer a pind (funeral cake) of sand in lieu of 
rice. She kept as witnesses the river Fulgoo, a Brah- 
min, a toohee plant, and a banyan tree, to justify her 
proceedings under a necessity that admitted of no pro- 
crastination. On the return of the brothers, Seeta 
related to them the adventure of their father. But 
Rama disbelieving her, she called upon Fulgoo to bear 
its testimony. The river kept mute, and was cursed to 
lose its stream. The Brahmin and the toolsee plant, 
failing to give a faithful evidence, were respectively 
doomed — the one to be a mendicant, and the other to 
suffer from the urinary abomination of dogs and cats. 
The banyan tree alone confirmed the truth of Seeta's 
story, and was blessed to have a long life and perennial 
vigour. Originally the Lelajan was a sacred river of 
the Buddhists, on account of Buddha's ablutions in that 
stream. It is identified with the 'Nirajuna' of the 
Thibetan Buddhists. But on the triumph of the Brah- 
mins, the Pouranic authors claimed it as a holy river 
of their own, and connected it with fables, the invention 
of which has effaced all remembrance of its previous 
Buddhistical sanctity. Here and there, in the dry bed 
of the stream, are small pools of limpid water. How- 
beit, its extra-aqueous properties, its immediate benefit 



222 Travels of a Hindoo, 

of a deKcious beverage in a hot sun, are beyond 
question. 

Towards Shergotty the road is lined with trees. 
Literally interpreted, Shergotty means the Tiger Pass. 
Fifty years ago travellers had to hire tom-tom men to 
keep off the tigers infesting the road. The town stands 
on a narrow slip of land separating the Boodiah from 
the Morhur. Compared with the desolate hill-tracts, 
this is a swarming hive of men. It is on this side of 
the hills, as Raneegunge is on the other. But it is not, 
like Raneegunge, a young town just emerging from its 
teens. It is an aged centenarian, bowed down with the 
weight of years and calamities, and with but a slight 
prospect of having new Kfe and vigour breathed into it 
ag^in. Its foundation dates, we think, from an early 
epoch. The place may have existed in the time of 
Ajata Satru, of Buddha, and of Asoca, though it is now 
difficult to ascertain the name by which it was then 
known. It may happen to be traced in Fa Hian, 
under a curious Chinese orthography. Shergotty was 
a large, populous, and flourishing town in the time of 
the Patau governors of Behar. Mention is made of it 
in the route of Meer Jumla to Rajmahal, when that 
Mogul general had been sent to attack Prince Shooja. 
The only remains of its antiquity are a few tombs and 
mosques. It is now slowly recovering from the effects 
of the depopulation in the great famine of 1770. Marks 
of that terrible calamity are borne even yet by the sur- 
rounding country, which is in a state of jungle. 

From Shergotty, as from the centre of a radius. 



Shergotty, — the Gayalese. 223 

diverge roads towards Calcutta, Hazareebaugh, Benares, 
and Gaya. The last place is a journey only of twenty 
miles. Gaya is Fa Hian's ' Kia-ye.' It is famous for 
the Hindoo Vishnupud. The great strength of the 
Gaya-Asura is but a figurative allusion to the great 
strength of the Buddhistic sect ; and the story of all 
the divinities faiKng to subdue the monster till he was 
put down by the weight of Vishnu's foot is evidently 
an allegory of the final triumph of the Vishnuvites 
over the Buddhists, Brahminites, Shivites, and other 
sects. The Vishnupud is a rival counterpart of the 
impression of Buddha's foot — and Gaya and Boodh- 
Gaya, in each other's proximity, point out the alternate 
predominance of the antagonistic sects. The Vishnu- 
pud had been set up prior to Fa Hian's visit. 

It is very singular with the Gayalese, that their 
widowers are barred the privilege of wiving after the 
death of their first wife^ as Hindoo widows are barred 
the privilege of taking a husband after the death of 
their first lord. TJhiis is certainly putting the neck in 
the halter of one's own choice. It is man who has 
always played the tyrant over woman. Civilized Asia, 
as well as civilized Europe, has in all ages treated 
woman as the tendril, and man the tree, and taken 
advantage of the weaker sex to place her under a yoke 
of restriction. The custom of the Gayalese is without 
a precedent. It savours of the celibacy of the Buddhaic 
priests. The Gayalese may be regarded as demi-Brah- 
mins and demi-Buddhists — Brahminical by birth and 
faith and Buddhistical by manners and customs. The 



224 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Jains, more like good mediators than heretics, tried but 
failed to effect a compromise between the two sects. 

Shergotty abounds with many Gayalese scouts on 
the look-out for pilgrims. A gang of them had become 
very troublesome in offering to convey us to their sacred 
city. But the coz of our^ tradesman, becoming the 
spokesman of our company, out-swore, out-argued, and 
out-laughed them all, at the top of his voice. They 
had scarcely shown their backs, before another set of 
creatures demanded our notice. It was a collection of 
the lame, the leprous, the blind, and the decrepit, — 
most of whom were festering under raw and hideous 
sores, and exhibited a wasting from malady and want of 
food that threatened to terminate in a speedy consign- 
ment to the grave. All that is revolting or disgusting 
in disease and deformity was laid bare and exposed to 
the view, and the sight was too much for the nerves, 
which received a shock that discomposed us as much as 
we could have been by the sight of a man hauled up to 
the gallows. The most fearful object among them all 
was a woman who had lost both her lips, and showed a 
horrible array of teeth in a perpetual grin. The doctor 
felt an interest, which it is his vocation to do. But for 
us laymen, we made haste to retire from the scene by 
manifesting our sympathy by means of a little eleemos- 
ynary aid. The greater number of these wretched beings 
were but victims of their own vices. There is a secret 
even in the trade of beggary — there is a reason why so 
many beggars have collected themselves at this spot. 
It is because they have foimd it to their advantage to 



Oomga. — The River Soane. 325 

make their stand at a place through which there is not 
a day that some men or other have not occasion to pass 
on to Gaya, distributing alms in their progress, and 
moralizing to the world that the path to heaven lies 
through the gateway of charity. 

Night caused us to miss the antiquities of Oomga, 
which lies fourteen miles west of Shergotty, near the 
dawk-bungalow of Muddunpore. Once this was the 
seat of a branch of the old Pal kings of Bengal, but the 
spot is now quite deserted and in ruins. There is a 
temple of Juggernauth here 400 years old, and 60 feet 
high, founded by a Raja, Bhoyrub Indra, said to have 
been descended from a collateral branch of the Chandra- 
Vansa princes, and who, subverting the throne of the 
ancient dynasty, flourished subsequent to the period 
when the Rajpoot Chiefs of Central India made their 
crusades against the Buddhists of Gaya. The older 
lingams of Shiva, set up in this close neighbourhood to 
the scenes of Buddha's labours, are the first evidences 
of the encroachments of Shivaism over Buddhism. 

October 24:th. — The Soane ! the Soane ! the Hirani- 
abhya of the ancient Maghadas and Prachii, — and the 
Erranaboas of Arrian and Pliny, an identification that 
must silence all future dispute about the site of Pali- 
bothra, situated, as stated by Megasthenes, at the junc- 
tion of the Ganges and Erranaboas. The majestic river 
lay stretched in its broad expanse — ^ dashing onwards 
its golden tribute bent to pay.' The bed, more than 
three miles wide, fully justifies the third-rate rank 
which the Greeks assigned to it among the Indian 

VOL. I. 15 



226 Travels of a Hindoo, 

rivers falling within their observation. Ilalf the bed is 
now a dry waste of sand, over which the gharry had to 
be drawn by a team of four bullocks, while coolies 
pushed it from behind. The water has a clear, bluish 
appearance. As we crossed, a light breeze sprung up 
to break the glassy surface of the stream into beautiful 
crisps. The eye wandered over a lonely but charming 
valley, disclosing a varied scene of wooded hills and 
luxuriant valleys. The hills of Rotas, forming a noble 
background to the scene, and changing their appear- 
ance as we shifted our ground, were caught from several 
points of view. 

The Nerbudda and the Soane were to have been 
married, says the legend. Like a true Ilindoo bride 
and bridegroom, they had never seen each other, the 
one to woo, and the other to be won. The day of their 
nuptials arrived. Iler majesty, the Nerbudda, became 
anxious to know what sort of a personage her affianced 
was, and she deputed a handmaid, by the name of Jhola, 
to bring her a report, ilean while, his majesty the 
Soane was approaching at the slow and stately pace of 
an Indian bridegroom. He met Jhola on the way, and 
was at once captivated — and she, * nothing loath,' 
yielded to his caresses. The Queen was no sooner ap- 
prized, than she rushed forward in a towering passion, 
and with one foot sent the Soane rolling back to the 
east, whence he came, and with the other lacked little 
Jhola sprawling after him — resolving for herself to keep 
on a westemly course, and remain a virgin queen all her 
life. The truth of this fiction may well be seen at 



Deyree, — Rotas, 227 

Omerkuntuck, where the Nerbudda flows on to the 
west: the Soane, taking a westerly course for a few 
miles, turns ofi* suddenly to the opposite direction, and 
is joined by the little stream of the Jhola before it 
descends the great cascade. 

Deyree has a charming site upon a bold and lofty 
bank, immediately overlooking the river. A gun, 
mounted upon the walls of its intrenchment, points at 
the ghaut itself to protect it from hostile approach! 
The intrenchment calls to mind the days of the Mutiny. 
On the left shore of the Soane^ we trod on the soil of 
ancient Kikata — the modern Shahabad. 

From Deyree to Rotas is a trip of 20 miles. Per- 
sonal observation confirms the truth of the impregna- 
bility of the hill-fort, the most celebrated in all Indian 
history. From all accounts Rotas is said to* have been 
founded by Rohitas — though authorities difier as to the 
age in which he flourished.* Raja Nala — of Nal Dum- 

* * Rajah Harishchundra has no sons, and worships Varuna, in 
order to obtain a son, promising to sacrifice to him his first-bom : he 
has a son in consequence, named RoJdta : but when Varuna claims 
his victim, the king delays the sacrifice under various pretexts, from 
time to time, until Rohita attains adolescence, when his father com- 
municates to him the fate for which he was destined : Rohita refuses 
submission, and spends several years in the forests, away from home : 
he at last meets there with Ajigartha, a Rishi, in great distress, and 
persuades him to part with his second son, Suneshepas, to be substi- 
tuted for Rohita, as an offering to Varuna : the bargain is concluded, 
and Suneshepas is about to be sacrificed, when, by the advice of 
Viswamitra, one of the officiating priests, he appeals to the gods, and 
is ultimately liberated. (Aitareya Brahmana.) Menu alludes to the 
story, and says that Ajigartha incurred no guilt by giving up his son 
to be sacrificed, as it was to preserve himself and family from perish- 
ing with hunger.' This is one account from Wilson's translation of 
the Rig- Veda. The following is another. * The Cuchawa or Cushwa 
race claims descent from Gush, the second son of Rama, king of 



228 Travels of a Hindoo. 

mtm celebrity — losing his patrimonial inheritance of 
Rotas, and becoming a fugitive, met with all those re- 
verses, the relation of which is the grand source of de- 
light to all the Hindoos — and a mti-saicder to their 
princes in misfortune. The castle stands on a spur 
some 2000 feet high. Shere Shah's stratagem to make 
himself its master is very clever to read, but betrays the 
poverty of the military art in his age. The artificial 
works of Raja Maim to strengthen the castle have been 
in ruins for a long time. Out of fourteen gateways, 
Tieffenthaler saw that ten of them had been already 
walled up prior to his visit. In our own days, TJnmier 
Sing held the neglected and ruinous fort of Rotas for 
several months against a strong British force. 

No doubt, the future historian would hesitate to 
deny to Koer Sing and TJmmer Sing, the valour and 
enterprising spirit which belong to the lineal descendant 
of the ancient Khetrya and Rajpoot. They were men 
worthy to have lived in a better age, and to have died 
in a better cause. By nature and fortune were they 
qualified to have distinguished themselves as historic 
characters. But in their infatuation they entered upon 
a bubble scheme, the bursting of which no sane man 
could doubt. They raised the standard for national 
independence, and anticipated that event at least two 

Koshala, whose capital was in Ayodia, the modern Oiide. Cush, or 
some of his immediate offspring, is said to have migrated from the 
parental abode, and erected the celebrated castle of Rotas, or Rohitas, 
on the Soane, whence, in the lapse of generations, another distin- 
guished scion, Raja Nal, migrated westward, and in A.D*. 295, founded 
the kingdom and city of Nurwar, or classically Nishida.' — Tod's 
liajasthaUy vol. ii. p. 34G. 



Koer Sing and Ummer Sing. 229 



centuries before its time. We have to learn much before 
we ought to hazard a leap. The world has grown much 
wiser since the times of the patriarch monarchs and 
legislators, and India can no longer be expected to re- 
lapse into the days of a Brahmin ascendancy, or a Mah- 
ratta government — a state in which rights are strong, 
and law weak. The advent of the Anglo-Saxon race 
was not merely fortuitous, but had been fore-ordained 
in the wisdom of Providence. First of all, our efforts 
should be to shake off the fetters which a past age has 
forged for us, to effect our freedom from moral disa- 
bilities ; and not to stake the well-being of the country 
on the result of a contest between ploughmen unused 
to shoulder a musket, and veteran ^Idiers who have 
marched triumphant into Paris, Canton, and Candahar. 
Nothing less than Hindoostan ought to be given away 
to the English in grateful reward for their introducing 
the art of printing, which is emancipating thousands of 
minds from the yoke of a superstition that held us as 
brutes for centuries. 

Three years ago, how high the popidarity of Koer 
Sing in these quarters was. The tocsin of his name 
sounded in the ears of the peasantry, and they left the 
plough to run to his standard. So far away as in our 
own household, there was a Beharee bearer who used 
to be busy every morning in wrestling and other gym- 
nastics. The crotchet entered his head, that he would 
one day be called upon to serve in the ranks of Koer 
Sing's army. In time, however, the poor fellow was 
laughed out of his infatuity by his fellow-menials. 



230 Travels of a Hindoo. 

No trace of the inroads of the rebels along the road 
— ^no fair fields and villages turned into a desert. On a 
low spur, there yet stood one of those towers which had 
been erected at intervals for conveying signals from 
post to post in the days of the Mahratta War. Very 
hot sun. Not a trace of water within five miles. Halted 
at the Gossain-talao — the eleemosynary foundation of a 
temple, tank, and well by a Gossain in an arid district 
— and a fair sample of Hindoo public work. The 
stone-enfaced tank has a pretty appearance. But the 
heated water was impregnated with zoophytes : the 
well is, in its stead, therefore used for all purposes. 
Over the Ghaut is a small temple of Shiva. The whole 
plot of ground is enclosed by high embankments of 
earth planted with young neem trees. The open area is 
shaded by many fruit trees. Under a Mango tree an 
old man bent down with years was cooking some coarse 
rice on an iron platter. Five years ago he had tra- 
velled on foot from Midnapore to Bindrabun on pil- 
g^mage. He was now returning home. But he had 
been robbed of his baggage on the way, while asleep in 
a serai near Allahabad. From thence he has been 
begging his food all the way down, and he was now 
hopeless of being able to accomplish the rest of his 
journey by depending upon the precarious charity in 
the jungles. Tears trickled down the old man's cheeks 
as he told his tale, and we gave him a couple of rupees 
to help him to his home. 

Sasseram is welcome after a journey of 200 miles 
through a dreary country. From desert-hills and valleys. 



Sasseram, — Haseyn Khan^s Tomb. 231 

where there are scarcely any landmarks of man's ex- 
istence, the traveller alights here amidst the haunts * of 
society, friendship, and love/ The spot is crowded with 
some 3000 huts and shops, all of mud walls and tiled roofs. 
The two-storied hut is first visible here, as also the pot- 
tery, so much superior to that of Bengal. The neat 
wooden toys in the shops remind us of that ancient Asura, 
who had a thousand arms with a difierent plaything on 
each — from whom is the name of Sasseram. The town 
is finely situated, with a beautiful view of the distant blue 
hills, and a rich and cultivated valley for many miles. 
But Sasseram, noted for the birth-place of Shere Shah — 
the Co6ur de Lion of the East, and intended by him to have 
been turned into another Delhi, disappoints all expecta- 
tions, and disgusts one by the loathsome aspect and odour 
of the narrow, crooked lines of human dens, little better 
than sheds provided for cattle. The people have a 
miserable look, denoting poverty and wretchedness. 
Sasseram is a decayed Patan town, which is marked by 
the usual filth and squalor of the race. Building was a 
rage with the Moguls, not with the Patans. The rage 
of the latter was in the opposite way — demolition, and 
not erection. 

Haseyn Khan^s Roza or tomb is an exception to our 
remark. Filial piety could scarcely have honoured the 
memory of a father with a more splendid mausoleum. 
The building stands in the middle of a walled quadrangle, 
with lofty gateways. The form is an octagon, with 
small cupolas at the angles, and a magnificent dome on 
the top. The structure is of masonry, with outer en- 



23 2 Travels of a Hindoo. 

facements of freestone. Inside, the walls are plastered 
like polished marble. Time has dimmed their lustre 
by laying on a crust of dirt upon them. Our voice, 
resounding in echoes beneath the dome, scared away 
a number of pigeons that were perched on the cor- 
nices, and to whom the place seems to be abandoned. 
The sarcophagus is placed just in the middle of the 
groimd-floor. Though a little too much ornamented, 
the general design of the building is simple. The date 
of the tomb is a. d. 1531. But excepting a slab or two 
that is out of place, the whole edifice is yet in a very 
good condition. 

From the top of the Roza, the town, spread out 
beneath the feet, can be seen in detail. Towards the 
north the tomb of Shore Shah appeared to rear itself 
in the air from out of an artificial lake. In form and 
design it is much the same as that of his father ; but it 
is loftier in height, larger in dimensions, and more 
superb in appearance. Rising in an open uninter- 
rupted plain, the efiect also is more telling. 

* From 'midst a limpid pool, superbly high, 
Tlie massy dome obtrudes into the sky, 
Upon the banks more humble tombs abound, 
Of faithful servants, who their chief surround. 
The monarch still seems grandeur to dispense, 
And e'en in death, maintains pre-eminence.' 

The tank, which once measured a mile in circimiference, 
has decayed into a cesspool ; the stone-enfacements 
have all slipped down into the reservoir ; the causeway 
to the tomb is dilapidated ; only a cemetery or two 
remains of the * humble tombs of the faithful servants, 
— the rest are all prostrate upon the ground, and disap- 



Shere Shakes Tomb, — his Highway. 233 

pearing every autumn to fill up the tank. Cremation 
left no choice to the Hindoos for such splendid obituary- 
monuments and 'storied urns/ Shore Shah himself 
caused the erection of this tomb — distrusting, perhaps, 
his immediate survivors, posterity, tradition, history, 
and everything, to do him adequate justice. It is re- 
markable that he did not prefer to build a palace, but 
his tomb. He was killed by the explosion of a mine at 
the fort of Callinger. Only his little finger was found — 
and that alone lies interred beneath the stately mausole- 
um, which is the ornament of the valley of the Soane. In 
another generation or two, this tomb may * leave not a 
trace behind.' The utilitarian economy which appre- 
ciates only reproductive works, is sadly mistaken to 
consign to decay the costly works of a preceding age. 
To abolish all ornamental works would be to question 
the beauty of the stars and flowers — the general loveli- 
ness of nature in the creation. 

No more useful work, nor a more splendid monu- 
ment of his glory, could have been left behind by Shere 
Shah, than the highway which stretched a four months' 
journey from Sonargong in Bengal to the western 
Rotas on the Jhelum, and compared with which the 
Grand Trunk Eoad of our age falls into the shade. 
Had that road existed, as his rupee coinage is still cur- 
rent, it would have saved the fifty lacs expended on the 
present thoroughfare. In many places that road had 
remained for fifty-two years much in the same state as 
when originally founded. To this day the remains of 
one of his stone and brick-built serais may be seen at 



234 Travels of a Hindoo. 

Jehanabad, some fourteen miles from Sasseram. But 
Shere Shah in his turn must yield the palm to Asoca, 
who made highways, regularly milestoned and shaded 
with peepul and mango trees, throughout his kingdom, 
dug wells at the distance of every cross, erected dhurm- 
salas for the use of man and beast, hospitals for the sick, 
and rest-houses for the wayw^orn at night. 

The country improves as you approach Benares. 
The road to that city is under a beautiful avenue. 
Shere Shah's tomb is visible from many miles off — a very 
good proof of the flat, level character of the country. 
We met a European lady travelling alone with her 
child. She dared not have done this three years ago, 
when she was sure to have been beset, like Milton's 
Lady in the Comus, by lots of hudmashes. 

To the Hindoos, the Caramnassa is the very an- 
tipodes of the Ganges. Not more does a dip in the 
river flowing from Shiva's head insure salvation, than 
is perdition threatened to be the consequence of the same 
act in the other river. In days gone by the ferryman had 
need of especial care against raising a splash by the oar, 
and jeopardizing the eternal welfare of the passengers. 
Poor people, who could not afford for ferrying, were 
forded on the shoulders of men — the touch of a drop of 
the cursed waters was imperilling enough. No such 
step has to be taken now. The munificence of a 
wealthy Hindoo — Raja Putni Mull of Benares* — ^has 

* * The same re-built a temple at Muttra, which cost 70,000 Rupees, 
made a stone tank there at a cost of three lacs, a well at Jwala-mukhi, 
which cost 90,000 Rs. ; he spent 00,000 Rs. on a ghaut at Hurdwar ; 
60,000 Rs. on a Serai at Brindabun : on these and other public works 
he spent eight lacs of rupees, for which Lord W. Bentinck made him 
a Raja. He has recorded, in four languages, on this bridge, the fact 



The River Caramvassa. 235 

raised a substantial bridge of stone over the river, to 
which in former years extended the frontiers that have 
in our day been pushed up to Peshawur. The Caram- 
nassa is 300 feet wide, and rises 30 feet in the rains. 
The sand in its bed is 20 feet deep. 

The real tradition is lost which has laid the Caram- 
nassa under a ban, and in its place has been invented 
the following legend. The aspiring Rajah Trisanku 
had exalted himself among the gods, by his prayers and 
penances. But he was kicked out headlong from 
Swerga by Shiva, and arrested half-way in his fall, 
where he remains suspended — tugged this way by 
gravitation, and to the other drawn by the merit of his 
penances. He lies with his head downward, and his 
saliva falling into the Caramnassa is the cause of its 
desecration. The legend, if good for nothing else, is 
an apt illustration of the position of Young Bengal. 
The religious prayers and penances of the one might 
be taken for the education and enlightenment of the 
other. Longing after Swerga might be interpreted 
into a longing for the privileges of the conqueror — and 
expulsion is another word for exclusion. The wrath of 
Shiva is akin to the exterminating principle of the 
Blood-and-Scalp-School members. And hanging in the 
air is illustrative of that midway position, in which 
an educated Hindoo is placed between his orthodox 
countrymen on the one hand, and the race of his con- 
querors on the other. 

of his erecting it ; the foundation had been previously laid by the 
prime minister of Poona, who spent three lacs on it. The bridge was 
designed by James Prinsep.' — Calcutta BevieWy No. XLI. 



236 



CHAPTER VI. 

October 25th, — It was past four in the morning. 
The driver awoke us, and announced the tidings of our 
arrival before Benares. In a few minutes we were upon 
the river-side, straining our eyes to catch a gUmpse of 
the Holy City that rests upon the trident of Mahadeo. 
But a soft murky gloom still hung upon the prospect, 
and we could descry only the shadowy outlines of the 
city upon the opposite bank. The Ganges, flowing 
past below it, * glided at her own sweet will.' From 
her surface rose misty exhalations, as if in incense to 
the wrathful Deity of the Hindoo Pantheon. The 
mighty city lay hushed in repose, excepting the sounds 
of the nagara from some temple, that came mellowed 
across the waters, and fell in a pleasing cadence upon 
the ear. As daylight gradually poured itself, thousands 
of spires, temples, shrines, minarets, domes, palaces, 
and ghauts, were laid bare to the sight — disclosing a 
most panoramic view. The city of Shiva, the great 
stronghold of Hindooism, the holiest shrine for pilgrim- 
age in India, and the nucleus of the wealth, grandeur, 
and fashion of Hindoostan, now clearly stood out in 
view, — * rising with her tiara of proud towers, into ain" 



Benares, 237 

distance.' From having heard, and read, and dreamt 
of Benares for many a year, we now gazed upon that 
city, and realized the longings into which one is led by 
its prestige. 

The first view is magnificent, and answers all ex- 
pectations. The lofty bank, and the graceful bend of 
the river — in the form of a half moon, give to Benares the 
advantage of being seen drawn out in all its length, and 
presented in all its details. In Bishop Heber's opinion, 
one has a very good view of Benares from a boat. But 
seen from the opposite bank, the city 'looks right 
glorious.' From there, the photographer can at once 
take in the whole river-frontage from one end to the 
other — summed up of flighty ghauts lining the entii*e 
length of the bank, and a close array of buildings and 
temples, each jostling, as it were, to peep one over the 
other's head. 

Doubtless, the elevated site of Benares upon a high 
steepy bank, has given rise to the story of its being 
founded on the trident of Shiva, and its exemption from 
the shock of all earthquakes. But it is to be doubted 
whether old Biseswara did not feel a quake at the ex- 
plosion occurring some ten years ago, when a fleet of 
boats carrying ammunition happened to take fire below 
the Raj -ghaut. It is next to a certainty that he must 
have had a proof then of his abode upon the terra-firma 
— of his city being of * the earth earthy.' 

Not a little interesting feature in the landscape is 
the river. The right side, too, has its beauties to attract 
the eye. It had been designed to found a rival city 



238 Travels of a Hindoo, 

upon this bank, and call it Vyas-Kasi. The design 
originated not, as it has been mystified in the Poorans, 
on the part of Vyas to avenge his personal wrongs and 
insults on the Shivites, but on the part of the Vishnu- 
vites themselves, to establish the pre-eminence of tbeir 
sect by aiming a deadly blow at the power of their op- 
ponents. It was not Vyas who had been ill-received 
and ill-treated at Benares, but it was the Vishnuvites 
who had been opposed and denied a footing in the city 
so devoted to Shiva. In the conflict waged between 
the two great sects of the Hindoo world, each party has 
always sought to strengthen the cause of its superstition 
by the sanction of great names. There is no name so 
venerated in the Hindoo Shastras as that of the com- 
piler of the Ved-Sanghitas. By that name is the sect 
of the Vishnuvites honoured at its head, and its veteran 
authority was quoted to lend a countenance to their 
proceedings in the foundation of a new Kasi on the right 
bank of the Ganges. But sentimental Vishnuvism 
failed to draw away men from a superstition which pro- 
mised immediate gratification to their fleshly cravings, 
and no rival Vishnuvite town ever rose on the opposite 
bank of Benares to threaten the religious dorainancy of 
the Shi^dtes. Failing in their ambitious project, tbe 
Vishnuvites became the laughing-stock of their adver- 
saries. They were taunted with being metamorphosed 
into asses on their death at their much-vaunted town. 
Tlic nucleus of that city has become the country-seat of 
the Rajah of Benares. But he takes the most punc- 
tilious care not jeopardize his soul in that accursed 



Benares y — Bridge of Boats. 239 

spot. In his last moments he is carried over to the 
other side, which is considered to form the nearest 
point to heaven. Under this impression of the Hindoos, 
the bridge of boats connecting Benares with the op- 
posite bank might with good reason be taken for a 
veritable Pons Asinorum. 

The bridge in question has just begun to be laid 
across. In the interim of its ceasing to exist, during 
the height of the rains, there plies the ferry of a little 
steamer paddled by men. The Ganges at Benares now 
is not more than two-thirds of the breadth of the 
Hooghly. But in the rains it becomes nearly ninety 
feet deep, and flows with a current of eight miles an 
hour. 

Landed at the Raj ghaut. Alexander was not more 
eager to leap on the shores of Ilion than an orthodox 
Hindoo is to do the same on the holy shore of Benares. 
We proceeded on foot to see the city. The view from 
the other side really deserves the epithet of magnificent. 
But much of the prestige vanishes away on landing on 
this side, and the gay and glittering city proves to be 
one of shocking filth and abominations. 

Travellers describe Benares as ^ characteristically 
Eastern.' They are thrown here ' on purely Oriental 
scenes.' Indeed, the city has no parallel in the East or 
the West. It is thoroughly Hindoo — from its Hindoo 
muts and mmideers, its Hindoo idols and emblems of 
worship, its toles, or seminaries, of Hindoo learning, its 
denizens of pure Hindoo faith and manners, and last, 
but not least, its shops of Hindoo confectionery. Every- 



240 Travels of a Hindoo. 

thing here savours of the Hindoo, and a foreigner 
beholds in it a bona fide Hindoo town, distinguished by 
its peculiarities from all other towns upon the earth. 

To quote the words of the poet, * four thousand 
years expand their wings' over Benares. It is the 
oldest post'dilurian city on the globe. Nineveh, Baby- 
lon, and others had been its contemporaries. But they 
are all in desolation, while Benares is still in its glory. 
The cities of the Allophylians are now without even 
a name— much less without a trace. The cities of the 
Aryans have shared nearly the same fate. Benares is 
the only town of pre-historic antiquity that yet survives 
to link the ancient world with the modem, and present 
a retrospect through a vista of several himdred years. 

But old as Benares is, it has not the hoary look 
about it, the time-worn visage and decrepit appearance, 
of an aged millenarian. It has no architectural vestiges 
of the times of Judisththira or Vicramadytia to * write 
wrinkles upon its brow.' The oldest building dates 
only from the age of Akbar. Ruled by different princes 
at different epochs, it had to assume a different phase 
on each occasion. The present appearance is obviously 
modernized. The mixed Hindoo and Saracenic order 
prevailing in its architecture, decidedly points to a 
recent origin of the present city. If Buddha were to 
see it now, he would not know one temple or street, and 
would find it crowded with idols where there used to be 
none. Megasthenes would not recognize it under its 
present features. Fa Hian would behold it as entirely 
changed in its site, magnitude, topography, architecture. 



Benares, its ancient Importance. 241 

and other details. Hwen Thsang also would be struck 
by many novelties that did not exist in the seventh 
century. Originally, Benares had been called Kasi. 
Very probably its founder Khetroviddya had con- 
ferred this name upon his favourite city. Under that 
name it had continued to be called for several ages — 
from the date of its foundation to the times of Buddha, 
Asoca, and Fa Hian in the fifth century. Of Benares 
when it was called Kasi, or in the age of the Maharabat 
or of Menu, no topographical account is extant. In the 
early times of the Rig- Veda it must have hardly begun 
to exist. But in the age of the great Hindoo Code it 
seems to have attained some importance and dignity, 
and to have become the great national seat of learning, 
where the means of acquiring knowledge were abundant, 
and where the opportunities of vigorous intellectual ex- 
ercise were frequent. Here, probably, did Kapila first 
enunciate his doctrines of the Sankhya, Here, probably, 
did Gotuma found his school of the Nyaics, Yaska 
probably published his 'Nirukta' at this place, Panini 
his Grammar, and Kulluca Bhutto his ' Commentaries 
on the Institutes.' No doubt is to be entertained that in 
ancient Kasi were to be found the most eminent Hindoo 
sages, who greatly enriched the literature of their nation, 
and who were qualified by genius, learning, and eloquence 
to guide the councils of kings, to mould the opinions of 
the public of ancient India, and to give law to the 
Hindoo world. Unless Benares had enjoyed a classic 
fame, been inhabited by a large and intelligent popula- 
tion, and had exercised the authority of a pontifical 

VOL. I. 16 



242 Travels of a Hindoo, 

city, it was not Kkely that it would have been chosen 
by Buddha as the fittest theatre for first * turning the . 
wheel of his law' among mankind. 

The Kasi'khund professes to give an account of 
ancient Benares. But it harps more upon Shiva than 
upon Shiva's abode. There is one little Tamul drama,* 
which helps to give an insight into the state of things 
in the olden times. In that drama the poet makes the 
exiled Rajah Harishchundra burst forth in admiration 
of Benares, as a gorgeous city of 'splendid turrets, 
princely mansions, and millions of pinnacles.' One 
is at first apt to take this account as referring to a 
period some eighteen himdred years on the other side 
of Christ, the probable age of Harishchundra ; but the 
traveller eighteen hundred years on this side of Christ 
finds it the self-same magnificent city of temples and 
turrets. But it is very much to be doubted whether 
in that early age Benares could have grown into such a 
great and opulent city — an age the same with that of 
the Rig- Veda, ' when temples and public places of wor- 
ship' were unknown on the plains of India, f The ana- 
chronism is glaring, and the poet must be construed 
as having described the city such as it was in the cen- 
turies immediately preceding the Mahomedan invasion. 
In his own age, the fourteenth century, the city had 
undergone great changes. By that time the name of 
Kasi had been long dropped for that of Benares. It is 

* ' Ariclmndra, the Martyr of Truth,' translated into English by 
Mutu Coomar Swamy Mudelier. 

t ' The woriliip was entirely domestic' — Wilson's Eig-Veda. 



Ancient History of Benares. 243 

a coinage of the Puranic authors, and must have been 
adopted in the Puranic age. Purely it is Baranasi, 
from Barana and Asi, the two rivers between which the 
city is situated. By a wrong orthography, it has be- 
come transformed into Benares. Only dry beds of 
those rivers are seen in this season. The change of 
name appears to have occurred subsequent to Fa Hian's 
visit, in whose time the place still retained its ancient 
appellation. It is probable that ancient Kasi fell into 
ruins on the expulsion of the first Buddhists from its 
possession. To rebuild it, the Shivites chose a new site, 
but not far removed from the old. Their city rose and 
extended from the Barana to the Asi, and no more 
appropriate name could have been bestowed upon it 
than that of Benares, which was dedicated to their 
patron deity Shiva. Then commenced the era from 
which Benares became the battle-ground of the difierent 
sects of the Hindoos, and the scene of their alternate 
victory and defeat — till its complete desolation by in- 
vaders of a new creed from regions beyond the Indus. 

We should greatly err if we were to suppose that 
any of the present streets and houses bear the same as- 
pect that they did in the age of Buddha, or Fa Hian, 
or Sancara. Much of the site now occupied along the 
river was a * forest' in Baber's time. Jungles stood 
and wolves prowled over the space now covered by a 
long succession of ghauts and temples. In those jungles 
the Tamul poet has laid the most touching scenes of 
his drama. The residence of Toolsee Doss — the mut of 
Ramanund over the Punchogunga ghaut, then peeped 



244 Travels of a Hindoo, 

through coverts and shades of trees. The present city is 
not more than three hundred years old. It first began 
to recover its ancient splendour about the year 1570, 
under the auspices of Rao Sorjun of Boondi, a E^jpoot 
chief who had been intrusted by Akbar with the govern- 
ment of Benares. By the prudence of his administra- 
tion and the vigilance of his police, the most perfect 
security to pei son and property was estabb'shed through- 
out the province. The city was beautified and orna- 
mented, especially the quarter of his residence, with 
eighty edifices, and twenty baths.* Just as Fitch saw 
it in 1583, just as Tavernier saw it in 1668, so did 
Ileber see it in 1825, and so do we see it in 1860 : 
though not without missing many things that have 
ceased to exist in the interval. 

Immediately above the Raj -ghaut, and at the con- 
fluence of the Barana and Ganges, is the site of the old 
Benares fort. The spot forms a great strategical posi- 
tion, and recalls to mind the history of ages. In 
Menu's time Benares was one of the six independent 
kingdoms in the valley of the Ganges. The Hindoo 
fort, overlooking that river, guarded its capital in those 
days from the approach of Panchala from the west, and 
from the approach of Maghada from the east. Inside 
the fort then stood the palace of the king. Troops of 
men, with brilliant sabres and iron-bound clubs, pro- 
tected the royal household. The gates of the citadel 
were guarded by pikemen bearing a long spear, scimitar, 
and a buckler. Those who performed duty on the 

* Tod's Bajasthan, vol. ii. p. 474. 



Ancient History of Benares, 245 

turrets were armed with bows whicli shot an arrow six 
feet long. The cavalry, riding upon high-mettled horses, 
curvetted in all directions. Richly-caparisoned ele- 
phants — * their protruding tusks armed with keen 
sabres' — were driven about, and made a splendid show. 
Gay cars and war-chariots ran hither and thither 
through the streets. From this fort poured forth of 
old the warriors who went to assist the Pandoos on the 
plains of Kurukhetra. The lieutenants of the Mag- 
hada kings lodged in this fort. Rajah Deva Pala Deva, 
the great Buddhist king of Gour, and his successors, 
held court here on the second ascendancy of their faith 
in Benares. The province then passed into the hands 
of the Rathore kings of Kanouge. The last Rajah, 
Jychand, had deposited all his valuables here. But the 
city of weak-nerved priests and pundits could ill resist 
the attack of the hardy Ghorians. The treasures, 
accumulated in the fort, fell an easy prey to the Mos- 
lem. There was a white elephant, which formed the 
most remarkable of all spoils. Such an animal is now 
a myth. In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, 
the space enclosed by the walls of the fort swarmed 
with houses and temples. Various ruins of them are 
still existing, particularly the remains of a Buddhistic 
Yihara, or temple, probably of the Gupta or Pal 
period. An accumulation of soil has taken place, 
raising the ground by many feet. Buildings, which 
must have been once on the surface, are now eighteen 
feet below ground. These are probably the remains of 
the city existing in the remote anti-Christian centuries. 



246 Travels of a Hindoo, 

In lieu of the ancient Hindoo citadel, there tower now 
the high mud ramparts of a fort, which was erected to 
command the city in the crisis of the late rebellion. 

The main road from the Raj -ghaut passes through 
what had been a thickly-inhabited quarter of the 
ancient city — the site of old Benares. Here, first of all, 
were the dwellings of the learned Brahmins. .Loud 
rose then * the voices of their students reciting the 
Vedas in the halls of learning.^* Here of yore did * the 
twang of the bow and the clash of the swords bespeak 
the royal residences of the Khetryas.' Here were * the 
wealthy mansions of the Vaisas, their shops and stalls 
extending in endless rows.' Money-changers there 
were, in whose shops * the constant clink of the great 
heaps of gold and silver coin that were counted made 
its metallic chorus heard even amidst the din and com- 
motion caused by the numberless buyers and sellers. 'f 
Here, for several centuries, stood many a temple and 
monastery of the Buddhists. The old city seems to 
have been more inland than the present. It may be 
that, partly owing to the caprices of Indian rivers, and 
partly to political and religious causes, the town has 
had to shift its site from time to time. It is to be re- 
gretted that almost no antiquities exist to preserve the 
memory of the spot where Buddha turned the wheel of 
his law — where' Bhascara held his commerce with the 
skies — and where Sancara encountered the atheistical 

* Thern were 700 seminaries at Kasi when Buddha went there to 
propagate his religion. 

f * Arichandrn,' Act v. Scene i. 



Architecture of Benares, 247 

Buddhists at all the weapons of controversy, and routed 
them from off the field. The interesting arena is bare 
of every vestige of the early Brahminic and Buddhistic 
epochs. The tower in honour of Buddha, which was to 
have been seen in Ajata Satru^s time, has long dis- 
appeared. The thirty monasteries spoken of by Hwen 
Thsang have all ceased to exist for several centuries. 
The locality is now thinly peopled, and gradually fades 
away into the suburban country-seats and gardens of 
the rich. 

In making a tour via the outskirts, one involuntarily 
performs that nugur-parikrama, or the circuit of the 
city, which is so meritorious in Hindoo pilgrimage. 
Falling into the heart of the town, we had to thread 
our way through a maze of alleys and lanes. These 
are so narrow, that * even narrow seems a term too 
wide for them.' The high rows of buildings on either 
hand exclude all sunshine and ventilation from the 
streets, and the man living perched on the topmost 
garret is as much grilled by heat during day as he on 
the ground-floor has to bid farewell to the sun in his 
mid-day career. Their case, however, is reversed at 
night, when the latter feels stowed close, as it were in 
a ship- hold — while the former, at his breezy height, is 
courted by Eolus from the four cardinal points of 
heaven. 

The architecture of a people depends upon the ma- 
terials afforded by the country in which they inhabit. 
In the plains of Bengal, where not a hillock is to be 
seen, and where the soil is alluvial^ the material for 



248 Travels of a Hindoo, 

its architecture is brick. But in Benares an inex- 
haustible supply of sandstone is found within an easy 
reach in the adjacent hills of Chunar. Hence this 
more durable material is employed by the Khottas in 
their buildings. The same that was said of Rome — 
which Augustus found all brick, but left all marble — 
may be said of Benares, which is all stone. 

But one, judging from the buildings in Benares, 
would not form a very high opinion of Hindoo archi- 
tecture. Though possessing a lofty and attractive 
frontage, there is not one house which is to be admired 
for its real architectural excellency. The taste, if any 
is at all exhibited, appears to have been frittered away 
upon elaborateness and minute elegance. There is no 
stately column — no magnificent arch, to produce the 
effect of solemn grandeur. Far from anything of the 
kind, small verandahs and galleries, oriel windows and 
brackets, carved pillars and sculptured walls, are in 
universal fashion. The pyramidal domes of the temples 
a re particularly ungraceful . Our Bengalee temples, with 
their rounded cupolas, are in much better taste. The 
Buddhists appear to have had more architectural genius 
than the Brahmins. Most of the houses are six to 
seven stories high, each story being ten to twelve feet 
in elevation. This dominionizing in the air is certainly 
for being pinched for space below. The houses have 
small courts, round which the rooms are built, little 
larger than pigeon-holes. The lower rooms are as dark 
as cells. The doors are so low, that vou are obliged to 
stoop to pass through them. The windows are few and 



Architecture of Benares. 249 

small. In a wall a hundred feet long there are scarcely- 
more than four or five openings. To have little light 
and air in domestic architecture is perhaps a suggestion 
of the local climate, which is beyond measure severe 
and trying, as well in winter as in summer. In Bengal 
the ladies live in separate apartments adjoining to those 
of the men, in one enclosure. But in Benares they 
have their zenanas high up on the sixth or seventh 
floor. By thus bearing their female world upon their 
shoulders, the Khottahs of Benares may outdo the 
chivalry of Bengal. But for all that, their women fare 
not the better. Perched high upon their aerial substra- 
tum, they are so much roasted during the day, that if 
anybody here were in need of grilled flesh, he had 
better look for a Benarese lady. 

The city is divided into wards, called muhullas, each 
having a gate closed at night. This a curious relic 
of the olden times — very good for making men sober 
against their will. But to us moderns, it appears as 
making caged birds of them. 

Temples in Benares are as * plenty as blackberries.' 
More than a thousand of them had been destroyed by 
the first Moslem invader. But they multiplied again, 
and their number rose to some fifteen hundred by the 
time of Jehangeer, who describes the place in his auto- 
biography as * a city of temples.' These again in their 
turn were levelled by Aurungzebe. A third time have 
they raised up their heads, and now they count again 
not less than a thousand. 

The idols are perhaps more numerous than the 



250 Travels of a Hindoo, 

swarming population of the city. They are seen not 
only in the public temples, but in many of the private 
dwellings, at the angles of the streets, and by the sides 
of the thoroughfares. This extraordinary number is 
easily accounted for by a Hindoo, who is aware of the 
fact, that all mortals dying in this holy city are made 
immortals by being transformed into the stone emblems 
of Shiva. Topographically, the Benares of the present 
day might afford a faithful miniature of the India of our 
ancestors. Its multitude of domes, turrets, and pinna- 
cles reflect * the very body and age — the form and 
pressure ' of that Bharatversh which was to have been 
seen in the Pouranic age. It does not afford a picture 
of the Bharatversh either of the Vedic period, or of the 
age of Menu — when idolatry was imknown, and the 
worship of one Almighty Spirit was prevalent in India. 

Bulls and beggars still abound, though not to the 
extent as in Heber's time. Partly the nuisance of the 
thing has been felt by the people themselves, and partly 
it has been suppressed by Government. There are 
enough beggars, though, to make one's charity to them 
* a drop of water in the ocean.^ Fakirs' houses still oc- 
cur at every turn. 

Benares is not purely a Shivite town. By turns, it 
has been Brahminical, Buddhist, Shivite, Sacto, Vish- 
nu vite, and Jain. Shiva is certainly the god-paramount, 
and the lord of the soil. But Doorga, Ganesa, Surya, 
Vishnu, Rama, and Parisnath, have all received pass- 
ports to settle in his territory. They have all of them 
their followers here like consuls and envoys in a foreign 



Benares y — Bheloopoor, 25 t 

court. Pilgrims of every sect throng hither to offer 
their prayers — and the * fifty thousand foreign devotees 
give one the different types of the Hindoo race^.' There 
are religious travellers sometimes from Thibet and Bur- 
mah. Benares has always been the head-quarters of 
Hindoo orthodoxy — enjoying and exercising the metro- 
politan authority throughout Brahmindom, that Rome 
once did throughout Christendom. 

Bheloopoor is comparatively an open and agreeable 
quarter. The muhulla is traversed by a road wide enough 
to allow two wheeled carriages to pass each other with 
ease. To the Jains it is sacred for being the birth-place 
of Parisnath. They have not put up a stone to mark 
the spot where he was born. The Ranee-Dowager of 
Vizianagram has taken up her abode at Bheloopoor. 
She is come far away from the Coromandel to spend 
hither her last days, and give up her soul in holy Ben- 
ares to avoid a transmigration. The old lady has passed 
her fiftieth year. By her largesses on the ma4y festive 
days of the year, and her constant entertainments to the 
poor, she has made herself not a little prominent in the 
city, where men are often under the impulse of surpass- 
ing each other in splendour and charity. She lives in 
a mansion respectable enough in a place where hot is the 
competition for abode, and keeps the best Nagara 
Khana in all Benares. 

In the locality where Parisnath sought to promote 
the spiritual welfare of men is now a dispensary to pro- 
mote their physical welfare. The Baboo in charge of 
that dispensary turned out to be an old chum of the 



252 Travels of a Hindoo, 

doctor — and he bade us all welcome to his roof and to 
his table. He is here for the last five years, and quoted 
his own instance — ^his own improvement from a long- 
standing dyspepsia — to confirm the healthiness of the 
place. But he did not omit to remark, that the heat 
in summer beggars all description. Once, for a moment, 
our thoughts were turned far away to home from the 
scenes around us, and we sat down to communicate the 
news of our arrival at the holy city of Benares. This 
done, a long hour was spent in chatting over a cup of 
tea, on the newest events of the day. The chillum inter- 
vened, to raise the question of our being beholden most 
— whether to the narcotic of China, or to the exotic of 
America. By nine, the company rose to prepare for 
bath. How fortunate is a Hindoo sinner, to have to 
pass through the pleasantest of all purgatories in the 
form of a dip in the Ganges, and thereby secure a pass- 
port to heaven ! 

The ghauts at Benares are by far the most striking 
of all its architecture, — and the ghauts of a Hindoo city 
are always its best lounges. Upon them are passed the 
happiest hours of a Hindoo's day. There, in the morn- 
ings, the greater part of the population turns out to 
bathe, to dress, and to pray. In the evenings, the peo- 
ple retire thither from the toils of the day, to sit on the 

• 

open steps and gulp the fresh river-air. The devout 
congregate to see a Simyasi practise austerities, or hear 
a Purumhiniso pass judgment upon Vedantism. The 
idler lounges there, and has a hawk's eye after a pretty 
wench. There do the Hindoo females see the world out 
of their zenanas, cultivate friendship, acquire taste, pick 



The IVomen of Benares, 253 

up fashion, talk scandal, discuss the politics of petticoat 
government, learn the prices current of eatables, and 
propose matches for their sons and daughters. Half 
their flirting and half their romancing go on at the 
ghauts. There have the young widows opportimity to 
exchange glances, to know that there are admirers of 
their obsolete beauties, and to enjoy the highest good 
humour they can harmlessly indulge in. 

Being the head-quarters of religion, the centre of 
wealth, the focus of fashion, and the seat of polite society, 
Benares is the great point of convergence to which is 
attracted the beauty of all Hindoostan. To have a peep 
at that beauty, the best opportunity is when the women 
sport themselves like merry Naiads in the waters of 
the Ganges. Then do you see realized the mythic story 
of the apple of discord between goddesses personified by 
the Khottanee, the Mahrattanee, and the Lucknowallee 
— each contending to carry off the prize. The Hindoo- 
stanee women have a prestige from the days of Sacoontola 
and Seeta. But it is to be questioned whether a youth- 
ful Bengalinee cannot fairly stand the rivalry of their 
charms. The dress and costume of the Khottanees cer- 
tainly kick the beam in their favour. But we would 
fain raise the point on behalf of the women of Bengal, 
whether * beauty unadorned is not adorned the most ' — 
whether in the nudity of their muslin- saree, they are 
not as naked as * the statue that enchants the world ! ' 

* fair undress, best dress ! which checks no vein, 



But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns, 
And heightens ease with grace.' 

Howbeit, with regard to the women, there is no 



254 Travels of a Hindoo, 

denpng the superiority of the mcD, either in point of 
complexion or physiognomy — barring, however, those 
instances of obesity, which disfigures a Khottah into a 
monstrous caricature — a * huge ton of a man/ The 
physique of the Bengalee betrays his Sudra, if not his 
Santhal origin. But in the Chetries and Brahmins of 
Kasi, we might still trace the features of an old Aryan 
ancestry. 

From bath to breakfast. Some of the dishes were a 
luxury we had not known since leaving Calcutta. Most 
of them were in strict accordance with the culinary 
dicta of Menu. 

Out upon sight-seeing. First of all, lay in our way 
the big and burly Teelahhandessur, He is a bluff piece 
of rock, the huge rotundity of which makes plausible 
the story of his daily growth by a grain of teeUeed. 
Following, is the legend of his origin. There was a 
young Brahmin, who had become enamoured of the 
pretty wife of a wine-dealer. The husband had need to 
go out upon business, promising to be back on the next 
day. In his absence, the wife invited her paramour to 
spend the night in her company. But imexpectedly the 
dealer returned home in the middle of the night, and 
threw the lovers into a great embarrassment. Finding 
no way to send the Brahmin out, the fertile wit of a 
woman contrived to hide him in one of the big jars that 
lay in a corner of the hut. On the door being opened 
to him, the dealer prepared to store the wine he had 
brought in one of the jars. Luckily or unluckily, 
it is difficult to. decide which, he pitched in the dark 



Teelabhandessur, — The leaning Temple. 255 

upon the very jar in which the Brahmin was con- 
cealed. The young man little dreamt of the danger that 
was nigh — of being * drowned in a butt of Malmsey/ 
He made no noise as the wine was poured in — and per- 
haps thought to himself, that it was a mighty boon to 
have both wine and woman together. But when the 
jar began to fill up towards the brim, the danger of his 
position could not but become obvious to him. Nothing 
daunted, however, he still maintained his silence rather 
than betray himself to disgrace, and enduring his suffo- 
cation without a groan, quietly gave up the ghost. Next 
morning, when the dealer went to turn out some wine, 
he found to his amazement both the jar and its contents 
petrified into stone. The story of the miracle was passed 
from mouth to mouth — and they made an apotheosis of 
the adulterer for his martyrdom in the cause of gal- 
lantry. Judging from Teelabhandessur's size, the Brah- 
min could scarcely have been contained in a jar of so 
small dimensions. All Ovid's Metamorphoses are cast 
into the shade by this single one of Teelabhandessur. 

To test Bishop Heber's plan, we hired a boat, and 
scudded down the stream. The leaning temple, often so 
prominent in an engraving of Benares, threatens to give 
way every moment, but it has remained in that posture 
for several years. The foundation ground has partly 
slipped down, and the river annually washes away its 
base, still it is spared as a standing miracle. — The Mus- 
sulman has razed down the convent of Ramanund over 
the Punchgunga ghaut, and there is now a supposed 
impression of his feet to mark the site.: — From the 



2^6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

burning of a corpse was made out the Munikurnika 
ghaut— the most sacred spot for cremation in all India. 
According to the version of the Shivites, — invented to 
exalt themselves at the expense of their antagonists, — 
Vishnu performed here certain acts of devotion in honour 
of Mahadeo, and as this pleased deity was in the act of 
nodding his assent to the prayers of his humiliated 
rival, he chanced to drop a pearl from one of his ear- 
rings — whence the name of Munikurnika. Vishnu, 
having been in want of water, had caused a fountain to 
spring up from the earth. This miracle is an object of 
the highest veneration. But the little cistern is so full 
of decomposed leaves and flowers, that a dip into it 
threatens to give more an immediate ague than a pass- 
port to heaven. Vishnu was in want of water while 
praying upon the very bank of the Ganges — as well may 
the Brahmins want us to gulp down pell-mell the story 
of an ant devouring up an elephant. The impressions 
of his feet are shown on the spot. But all such foot- 
prints are a religious plagiarism from the Buddhists, by 
whom they were first introduced on the death of Buddha. 
The closing scene of Arichandra is laid at the Muni- 
kurnika ghaut. Indeed, Benares has been the state- 
cage for state-prisoners from remote days. But none 
of the ex-kings under English surveillance has had to 
eke out his last days in a hut on the grounds of a burn- 
ing-ghaut, — and to depend for his meals on * the rice 
with which the corpses' mouths are filled.' The cost of 
the obsequies is now something more than * some rice, a 
cubit's length of cloth, and a copper coin.' 



River-side Shrines and Mansions, 257 

The neighbourhood of Munikurnika long continued 
a dense jungle. Trees, built into the walls of houses, 
are still pointed out as ' veterans of that forest/ Hard 
by, is the temple of Bhoyrubnath— the great general- 
issimo of Shiva. Next is the spot of Toolsidoss' resid- 
ence — the Milton of Hindi, the author of the popular 
version of the Ramayana, who flourished here about the 
year 1574. The locality is classic also for the abode of 
many of Choitunya's followers, who were some of them 
very learned men — and have left behind the latest works 
in Sanscrit. The travels of Choitunya throw a light 
on the state of Benares in the fourteenth century. 

Off from a boat, the large and lofty river-side shrines 
and mansions, rising in tier above tier, make up a gay 
and grand frontispiece. Their walls are richly adorned 
with foliage and figures of gods and giants carved in 
stone. They are principally the works of the piety of 
Mahratta princes and princesses. One is of Bajee Row, 
another of Holkar, and a third of Ahulya Baie. To the 
Mahrattas is the present city chiefly indebted for its 
foundation. It is from the time of their supremacy that 
its present flourishing state takes its date. 

Landed to see the observatory. To speak for once 
in the spirit of a bond-fide Hindoo, the act of getting up 
to the city from the river is like climbing up to a mount 
— Benares being fancied as the adopted Cailasa of Shiva. 
The Hindoo Temple of Science stands on a spot almost 
washed by the Ganges. It is ascended by a long flight 
of steps, many of which have gone out of order — so that 
a young tyro can practically experience here the diffi- 

VOL. I. 17 



258 Travels of a Hindoo, 

culty of climbing the hill of science. The observatory- 
is known by the name of Man MnndiL The origin of 
this name is a subject of dispute. By many it is traced 
to Rajah Maun — the celebrated Hindoo character of me- 
diaeval India. He is not more a historic than a heroic 
character — having been the husband of 1500 wives, and 
the father of 2 50 children— and out-heroing thereby all 
the epic characters from Achilles downwards. In his 
old age, Rajah Maun erected the building, which pre- 
sents a massive wall and projecting balcony of stone to 
the multitudes daily passing up and dowra the imperial 
river. He was to have spent here the evening of his 
life in repose and religious worship. But the court and 
the camp were the scenes in which he was destined to 
be bom and to die. Nearly a century after his death, 
his intended residence at Benares was altered and con- 
verted into an observatory by his countrjTnan, Rajah Jy- 
sing of Amber. Scarcely any name in Hindoo history 
is to be mentioned with more respect and gratitude than 
that of this Rajpoot prince, statesman, legislator, and 
"warrior — who spared not any toil and expense in the 
cause of science, who laboured to rescue the intellectual 
fame of his nation from oblivion, and who practically 
applied his knowledge of geometry to the foundation of 
a city after his own name — that is the only one in India, 
the streets of which are bisected at right angles. Hcber 
is wrong to suppose this observatory as * founded before 
the Mussulman conquest.' Jfo chance exists of identify- 
ing the spot from which observations were used to be 
taken in the Hindoo ages. The Man Mundil may be a 



The Olservatory, — Hindoo Astronomy. 259 

name derived from Rajah Maun. But Kterally inter- 
preted, it means an observatory, from man (measure- 
ment), and mundil (globe) — a place to measure the globe. 
There is a square tower, on which is a huge gnomon, 
perhaps twenty feet high. The arc of the dial is in 
proportion. There are also a circle fifteen feet in diam- 
eter, and a meridional line — all in stone. It cannot be 
that only these comprised the apparatus by which the 
ancient Hindoos were enabled to have correct notions of 
the precession of the equinoxes, and to discuss the diur- 
nal revolution of the earth on its axis. They must have 
had other instruments besides, to ascertain the move- 
ments of the heavenly luminaries. The quadrant is one 
with which they were once familiar. The armillary 
sphere is another. There are many other instruments 
in brass, which may still be seen in the courts of the 
Hindoo princes of Rajpootna.* This is not the place 
to argue upon the priority or the pre-eminence of the 
Hindoos as astronomers. Suffice it to say, that the 
plains of Hindoostan, uninterrupted by a single emi- 
nence, and rarely shadowed by a cloud, may be looked 
upon as a fit place for the birth of a science, which 
originating in the star- worship of the Aryas, ended in 
its subsidence into a national system of astronomy. 
Tavernier saw Jeypoor princes studying astronomy at 
this observatory. But only a solitary Brahmin is now 
attached to the spot to point out its curiosities to visitors. 
It is a pity that !no voice is raised to utiKze this observ- 
atory. Not even a telescope is found there — at least 

* * Rajasthan,' vol. ii. p. 259. 



26o Travels cf a Hindoo, 

for the sake of preserving appearance. Annually from 
Benares is still issued a calendar which ranlvs highest 
among everything of its kind in the Hindoo world. 
The Man Mundil is the oldest building in Benares. 

From the observatory to Madoo-rai-kc-dharara — 
where one witnesses the triumph of the iconoclastic Mus- 
sulman over the idolatrous Hindoo. Originally, a Hin- 
doo temple, dedicated to Vishnu under the name of 
Bindoo Madoo, stood here. It then covered, as seen, by 
Tavernier, an extensive plot of ground. By Aurung- 
zebe's fiat, this Hindoo temple was demolished, and 
converted into a Mahomedan mosque. The mosque has 
scarcely any imposing dimensions or striking architec- 
tural beauty, — only it makes itself prominent from a 
spot the most elevated in all Benares. The two minars, 
shooting towards the sky, are seen from many miles off. 
From their top, the Muezzin's call is heard above the 
din and strife of the city below. This Mahomedan 
mosque is like a blot upon the snow-white purity of 
Hindooism. It cannot fail to be regarded by the Hin- 
doos as a grim ogre, which obtrudes its mitred head high 
above everything else, and looks down with scorn — 
gloating in a triumphant exultation. To drop the 
metaphor, the altitude of the minars is 225 feet from the 
bed of the river. The view from their height is ex- 
ceedingly picturesque. All Benares seems to spread 
tapestried out beneath the feet— in which the diminished 
temples scarcely pop up their heads, and the busy crowds 
appear to swarm like bees in a hive. On a clear morn- 
ing the Himalayas are visible from the minars. 



Cheyte Shig, his Palace and Works, 261 

The desecration of their temple must have sorely- 
panged the feelings of the Hindoos of that day. How 
the sacrilege has been revenged with a tenfold vengeance 
by the overthrow of the Mogul empire ! In the last 
days of his life Aurungzebe must have been haunted, a 
Hindoo poet would have imagined, with visitations of 
the god Vishnu, and filled with forebodings of the 
rising storm of the Mahratta power, the * sea of troubles ' 
in which the vessel of state was to be tossed, its inevit- 
able wreck and annihilation, and the ultimate end of 
his posterity in exile on a foreign shore.* 

Distant view of Ramnugger from the dharara. The 
castellated palace of the Rajah rose nobly on the mar- 
gin of the Ganges. The wicket-gate, through which 
Cheyte Sing had dropped himself down the steepy bank 
to the river by means of a string formed of his turban, 
was scarcely visible. Many of that Rajah's works are 
still extant, — a temple sculptured with images of the 
Hindoo gods, a magnificent stone tank, and a beautiful 
stone paviKon. Cheyte Sing had at last to serve in the 
ranks of Scindia's army. In compensation for the loss 
of temporal royalties and realities, he — or rather his 
manes — may well be consoled by^the immortaKty which 
Burke has conferred upon his name. 

Our next visit was paid to bom-bom Biseswara. The 
same that St Peter^s is in Christendom, is the temple of 
Biseswara in Hindoodom. But the one is the admiration 

* 'Wherever I look, I see nothing but the Divinity.' *I have 
committed numerous crimes, and I know not with what punishments 
I may be seized.' * Come what may, I have launched my vessel on 
the waves.' — Last letters of Aurungzehe to Aziiii and Camhaksh. 



26z Travels of a Hindoo. 

of the world, while the other disappoints all expectations. 
There is nothing great or grand in the Hindoo Sanctum 
Sanctorum, commensurate with its celebrity. True, the 

* golden dome ' of the Tamul poet is not a mere fancy, 
but may be seen in fact, ' with the banner of the god- 
dess of charity streaming over it.' But it towers not, 
as of yore, above ' all the pinnacles of the city.' The 

* jewelled goper,' or the lofty building over the gateway, 
has ceased to exist. Coming with exaggerated notions, 
the pilgrim is sadly disappointed to find everything on 
a diminutive scale. The sanctuary, which all tongues 
raise to the skies, scarcely dares to rear up its head — 
being afraid, as it were, of confronting the Islamite 
ogre in its neighbourhood. Nor does his godship — the 
mighty Biseswara himself — less belie the great prestige 
of his name. He is liliputian beyond all expectation, — 
and is quite in the opposite extreme of a grand image of 
Shiva, some forty or fifty feet high, like Phidias' Jupiter, 
to rank deservedly as the first of divinities, lending an 
imposing appearance to idolatry, and calling forth the 
remark of Quintillian, that ' the majesty of art is com- 
bined with the majesty of God.' The burly Teelabhan- 
dessur would tell more in his place of the sovereign deity 
of Benares. To all appearance, Biseswara looks like an 
old decrepit di^inity, who has outlived by many cen- 
turies his contemporaries Somnauth of Diu and Jug- 
soom of Nagarcote — and who has been dwarfed by age 
into the most pitiable Kttleness. 

Though wanting in colossal dimensions, Biseswara's 
temple is, in fact, the most glorious of all temples upon 



Biseswara^s Temple, 263 

the earth. This is done by the thick plates of pure 
gold with which its dome is covered — a bequest of the 
monarch, to whom our rulers deigned the courtesy of 
styling as *the Lion of the Punjaub.' Mill, the histo- 
rian, scouts the idea of the wealth of Hindoo temples. 
Here is something tough and tangible to shake his 
obstinacy, and scatter his belaboured logic to the winds. 

For want of sufficient antiquity, the priests dare not 
ascribe the present temple to Viscarma — their celestial 
architect. It is still in the remembrance of the octoge- 
narian to have been built by the Mahratta princess 
Ahulya Baie, and adorned by the Sikh potentate Run- 
jeet. The mixed Saracenic and Hindoo style betrays it 
to be the architecture of a recent age. 

In Biseswara's temple may partially be realized an 
idea of the ancient pagoda of Somnath. The one is now 
not less famous and frequented than had been the other 
in the most palmy days of Hindoo idolatry. There is 
a perpetual crowd of devotees and pilgrims with offer- 
ings at the shrine. On an eclipse day the flock of 
votaries exceeds the number of a hundred thousand. 
The deity is washed every morning and evening in 
water from the Ganges, excepting that it has not to be 
brought from a distance of 1000 miles. There is a 
great bell from Nepaul which is struck by worship- 
pers during prayer. But, instead of hanging by a 
chain of gold weighing 200 maunds, it does so by a 
chain of much less precious metal, and of considerably 
less weight. In the centre hangs down a lamp, but not 
from a golden chain. The temple is endowed, but not 



264 Travels of a Hindoo. 

with the revenue of 2000 villages. The establishment 
also does not consist of 2000 priests, 300 musicians, 
and 500 dancing- girls. Nor would Neill have been 
rewarded with a profusion of diamonds if, like Mah- 
mood, he had struck the god with a mace in the late 
mutiny. Hindoo princesses do not choose now to con- 
secrate their lives to the service of the god. There is, 
however, too much pomp to make idolatry attractive. 
The scene at vespers is one of great solemnity. The 
altar is then brilliantly illuminated ; the emblem is 
richly adorned with garlands of flowers ; aromatics are 
burned to diffuse the fragrance of incense ; various in- 
struments are played upon, striking up an agreeable 
concert ; hymns chanted from the Vedas rise in sonor- 
ous accent ; the chorus is swelled by the worshippers, 
and time is kept by the beat of their palms. Dancing 
and songs then follow in routine. The god is next 
served with his supper. Then he has his hliang, his 
hctel^ and his chillum, to go to bed, wrapped up in a 
shawl in winter, or a brocade in simimer. 

Shiva, with his matted locks, besmeared body, and 
half-closed eyes, well personifies the man who drinks a 
glass too much. The toper-god may be thought to repre- 
sent the Indian Bacchus. 'Kisp/iallw emblem is undoubt- 
edly from the Romans, whose ladies used to wear it round 
their necks as a charm against sterility. The Brah- 
mins, fully appreciating the advantage of idolatry over 
the idealism of the first Buddhists, must have introduced 
it from abroad. Shivaism may have had a purer origin 
in the beginning, as some choose to think. But it has 



The Gyan-Bapij a sacred IVelL 265 

certainly gone the whole hog to come to the bosoms of 
men. The sect of the Shivites appears to be the oldest 
of all others — dating its origin probably from the com- 
mencement of the Christian era, previous to which 
Buddhism must have been predominant, when Asoca 
had so zealously laboured for its diffusion. The ex- 
ample of the Shivites must have emboldened the Sactos 
to introduce the worship of the female generative prin- 
ciple — the earliest mention of which is to be found in 
the Periplus, which alludes to the temple of Comori at 
Cape Comorin in the second century. Before long 
mutual affinity must have coalesced the two sects to 
merge their interests in one common superstition. 

The Gyan-Bapi is a sacred well — * the holy of holies.' 
In the depths of this well had the old and original Bises- 
wara of the ante-Mahomedan period to be concealed on 
the fall of Benares — and therefrom is its great sanctity. 
The Hindoo deity, like Minerva on the approach of 
Alaric to Athens, ought to have stood in a menacing 
attitude. His Nandi and Vringi ought to have been 
up and doing. But the fate that overtakes the drunk 
and incapable man no less overtakes the drunk and in- 
capable god, as also his followers. The spot occupied 
by Biseswara, immediately under the cupola, is pre- 
tended by the Brahmins to be a throne, which Shiva 
has filled uninterruptedly for a hundred million of years. 
But they ignore the interregnum that occurred on the 
disappearance of the old god. The present emblem has 
risen phoBnix-like from the ashes of his predecessor. 
Surmounting the well is a small tower ; there is a narrow 



266 Travels of a Hindoo. 

steep flight of steps to go down to the bottom. The 
subterraneous communication with the Ganges is an 
Ay e-and-my 'Betty story. Hereabouts is seen the couch- 
ant figure of a bull— the image of Nandi, the bahun 
or bearer of Mahadeo. The figure is as large as life, 
and would not have been a bad specimen of Hindoo 
sculpture, with a little more knowledge of anatomy — 
especially about the neck. 

The high -priest of Biseswara is singled out by his 
tall, portly figure, and dignity of demeanour. He has 
the sleek head and fat paimches of the happy, good- 
humoured mortal who has to think little, and not the 
care of toiling for his bread. His fair complexion and 
noble physiognomy are proofs of his high-born Aryan 
lineage. He was very civil to us, and ofiered a garland 
to each to wear round our necks, and * look like sacri- 
fices,* — to borrow Bishop Heber's expression. 

The neighbourhood of Biseswara is the nucleus of 
the oldest city, and the closest inhabited. Here are 
crowded the houses of the most ancient families. The 
streets here are the narrowest in all the town. For- 
merly there was no drainage, and the way through 
them was a perfect quagmire. Heaps of vegetable 
matter rotted in them. Offal was shot and pots emptied 
from the windows opening above. They are now paved 
with stones. But the passage is often blocked up by 
one of those sacred bulls, — * those fakirs of the animal 
world,' that lazily saunter along, or lie across them. 
They frighten the women in no small degree. To 
make them move their unwieldy bulk out of the way, 



Benares, — sacred Bulls, — Beggars, 267 

they must be gently patted — or * woe be to the profane 
wretch who braves the prejudices of the fanatic popula- 
tion.' To strike them is a high crime, social and re- 
ligious. Certainly, bullhood and priesthood appear to 
be the most thriving trades in Benares. The sacred 
creatures put the shops under a contribution. It is lucky 
that they do not choose to help themselves, but poke 
up their noses into a fruiterer's or confectioner's shop, 
and wait till the owner is pleased to give them some 
fruit or sweetmeats. Overfeeding has made them as 
unwieldy as little prone to mischief. The beggars 
abounding here are more pick-pockets than they pro- 
fess to be. They do not look starved or lean, but fine 
stout men. Their business is not only to fill their 
stomachs, but also their. purses. They solicit your 
charity with one hand, while they try to pick your 
pocket with the other. Time was when a pilgrim could 
not have shown himself here without being surrounded 
by a troop of applicants, as ravenous as vultures about 
a carcass, all anxious to have their share of the carrion. 
The robust appearance of the beggars is a proof of the 
unceasing resort of pilgrims, whose charity fills their 
cup to overflowing. 

Twenty or thirty paces from Biseswara is his se- 
raglio, or, more properly, the temple of Unna Poorna, 
identified by Heber with the Anna Perenna of the Ro- 
mans. This is by far a more imposiQg building than 
that of Biseswara. The choir is spacious and grand. 
The columns supporting the choir are well proportioned. 
The profile of the cornices displays rich decorations. 



268 Travels of a Hindoo, 

To heighten the devotional feelings by a sombre light, 
the image is placed in a dark recess. In the fashion 
of a modem Hindoo lady, the goddess is purdu-nashin, 
or veiled from the pubKc gaze. On the curtain being 
withdrawn, we stood admitted to the sight of a little 
female statue, with four arms. The figure was wrapped 
from the neck to the foot in clothing. Only the face 
was uncovered, and beamed refulgently in the glare 
of the lamps constantly burning in her presence. The 
image is of marble, but it has two models of its face — 
one cast in gold, and the other in silver, which are put 
on to disguise the goddess under a variety of appear- 
ance. She has in her hands the utensils used in a na- 
tive kitchen, to indicate her as presiding over the dis- 
tribution of perennial food. The temple of the Indian 
Cybele has been designed much in the fashion of a 
native zenana, and is appropriately placed on the left 
of that of her lord — the relative position of woman to 
man. It is remarkable, that Shiva is quite European 
in eschewing bigamy, and sticking himself to one wife 
— while Krishna, like a true Eastern potentate, keeps 
a large harem, filled with women of every rank and 
beauty. 

The golden face of Unna Poo ma recalls to mind 
Fitch's description of the Benares idols in his day : — 
* Many of them are black and have claws of brass with 
long nails, and some ride upon peacocks and other 
fowls which be evil-favoured, with long hawk's bills, 
some with one thing and some with another, but none 
with a good grace. They be black and evil-favoured. 



Unna Poorna's Temple. 269 

their mouths monstrous, their ears gilded and full of 
jewels, their teeth and eyes of gold, silver, and glass/ 
More than one idol under allusion can be identified in 
our day. Three long centuries have caused no change 
in the items of Hindoo idolatry, while in that very 
period the English have risen to be the first nation 
in the world, and to become the arbiter of the fate of 
India. 

In Unna Poorna^s temple. Bishop Heber saw a 
Brahmin pass his whole day seated on a Kttle pulpit, 
reading or lecturing on the Vedas. Near us also was 
seen a similar Brahmin, who from morning till sunset 
daily reads the Vedas, seated in a comer of the choir. 
He seldom raises his eyes from his book. The sonor- 
ous Sanscrit attracts round him a crowd of pilgrims, 
who do not turn their backs without throwing a pit- 
tance into his copper basin. It is doubtful whether he 
reads the Vedas which do not inculcate idolatry. His 
shaven head and face are anti-Vedic, and betray the 
adoption of Buddhistic habits. To the Buddhists 
should be traced the origin of all shaven heads, of 
going barefoot, of monkish costume, of monastic life, 
and of the celibacy of the priesthood. The Vedic 
Rishis wore the long hair and beard. The mother of 
Pandoo is known to have swooned away in the arms of 
Vyas for his long beard. To this day, Nareda is re- 
presented under a long grizzled beard in our native 
Jatras. In many points the Brahmin has compromised 
with the Buddhist, of which he is not aware in the pre- 
sent day. The antiquity of the Vedas has made them 



270 Travels of a Hindoo, 



as unintelligible as the Sibylline leaves. The study of 
them now is an amateur task, and the instances are few 
in which a Brahmin is disposed to explore through 
their obsolete Sanscrit. It may be that we are im- 
peaching the man upon imaginary grounds. He may 
really be a Veda-knowing scholar. But in that case, 
he cannot have a very sincere veneration for the god- 
dess in whose temple he makes his Kvelihood. 

More than one Sunnyassee exhibits himself here in 
his hideous attire. Between the unpretending Brahmin 
scholar and the ostentatious Sunnyassee there is a 
marked difference. The latter is all exterior, with his 
matted locks, his skeleton body, his tiger-skin garment, 
his trident and tongs, and his rosary of beads. The 
Sunnyassee pretends to personate Shiva. The Bhoy- 
rubbee pretends to personate Sacti. The latter takes a 
vow of ceKbacy, and is a Roman Vestal or Catholic Nun 
under another disguise. Very often she is animated by 
a sincere and enthusiastic spirit of devotion. But the 
frailty of the sex many times predominates over the 
fidelity of the votary. The young and pretty Bhoy- 
rubbee is not thought to be very steadfast to her pro- 
fessions. Happily, both Sunnyassees and Bhoyrubbees 
are fast going out of vogue. It is now rare to see a 
woman who has renounced all pleasures, all property, 
all society, and all domestic affection, pass on from city 
to city with a vermilion spot on her forehead, a cloth of 
dull orange on her body, a long trident in one hand, 
and a hollow gourd in the other. Hindoo female am- 
bition is not exercised now to distinguish itself by 



Cessation of Devoteeism, 271 



Sutteeism or a life of abstinence and prayer, but by the 
quaKties whicb fit a woman to be the companion of man. 
The Yogee also has become an obsolete character. The 
public of the present day would not tolerate his idle life. 
No man now performs the ceremony of standing on one 
leg between five fires, and gazing steadfastly at the sun 
the whole day. Many of our readers may remember to 
have seen, but cannot see now, a man holding up his 
hand above his head till the arm has lost its power, and 
the nails have pierced through the closed fist. CaKdas's 
* pious Yogee, motionless as a pollard, his body covered 
with a white ant's edifice made of raised clay, his neck 
encircled by a number of knotty plants, and his should- 
ers concealed by birds' nests,' is now a myth. Fifty 
years ago, there was to have been seen at Benares a 
Sunnyassee who had accustomed himself to repose on a 
bed of iron spikes for 35 years.* His penance would 
not have procured him any consequence in our day. 
The police has its eyes now upon all such idlers. 

Sight-seeing in Benares soon tires by being wanting 
in variety. It is found to be a repetition of the same 
thing over again — and resembles the entertainment 
given to Pompey, in which were a variety of dishes, but 
all made out of one hog — nothing but pork difierently 
disguised. Here also the variety is made out of one 
religion — nothing but idolatry, under difierent disguises. 
Travellers are attracted to Benares as a place the most 
ancient, venerable, and historic — as a sanctuary the 
hoKest in the Hindoo world — and as a to\\Ti the richest 

* Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 49. 



mmmi^SmSBSSfm 



272 Travels of a Hindoo. 

and most influential in Hindoostan. But it has attrac- 
tions peculiar only to itself, which scarcely gratify the 
curiosity of a rational mind. No remains of ancient 
Hindoo architectural genius are to be foimd in Benares. 
The Eajah of the land has no gallery like the Vatican, 
thrown open to delight all connoisseurs with the sculp- 
tures of a Hindoo Phidias, and the paintings of a 
Hindoo Raphael. There is no museum, in which are 
assembled the rare curiosities of Hindoo art and science. 
To interest the scholar who is drawn hither by the fame 
of its learning there are no classic seminaries — no pub- 
lic libraries containing the treasures of Hindoo thought 
and literature. There is no such scene as a Hindoo 
Westminster Abbey, in which repose the most remark- 
able men of Hindoo history. Jfothing resembling a 
native pubKc theatre or circus is known to the Hindoos. 
Our native pubKc entertainments are all tainted with 
idolatry. The civilization of the ancient Hindoos was 
characteristic of their age. They did not cultivate any 
politics or pubKc oratory, and there arose no Hindoo 
Cicero to harangue from a Hindoo Forum. The ancient 
Brahmins confined their learning in far-ofi" hermitages, 
and thought its circulation among the masses impolitic. 
Their sculpture was exercised only upon a fanciful idol- 
atry, and painting was ranked by them as scarcely 
superior to caKgraphy. They took no pleasure in col- 
lecting anything curious in nature or art imder a public 
roof. They did not know to honour the memory of 
their illustrious dead except by an apotheosis. Religion 
was * the be-all and the end-all ' of their existence. It 



BenareSy — the Chouk, 273 

gave its stamp to their public opinion and social institu- 
tions, to their individual ambition and feelings, to their 
arts and learning, to their festivals and amusements. 
The only works which religion taught them to appre- 
ciate were a temple, a ghaut, or an alms-house. The 
highest intellectual pleasures to which religion directed 
their taste were a pubKc rehearsal of the Ramayana or 
Mahabarat under an awning in the bazar. And the 
most popular character in which a man was ambitious 
to figure himself under their regime, was that of the 
founder of a sect. Hence travelling in India has little 
charms beyond the grandeur and romance of its natural 
sceneries. But under the auspices of the English, the 
topography and character of Indian towns are under- 
going a change, which, adding to their pre-existing 
renown, shall attract travellers from the farthest ends 
of the world. 

One place, forming an exception to our remark, is 
the Chouk. * From those delicate silks,' says Macaulay, 
^ which went forth from the looms of this city to adorn 
the balls at St James' and Versailles,' to the best cotton 
and woollen fabrics of Bengal and Cashmere, the finest 
diamonds of Golconda, and the pearls of Ceylon, the 
polished armoury of Oude, the excellent perfumery of 
Ghazipoor, — all that Hindoo artistic genius has devised 
and refined, and which gave to the Indian corner of the 
Crystal Palace the most brilliant attractions, — every- 
thing is displayed here in a gorgeous variety. The 
utilitarian is here pleased to be in his- congenial element, 
— and the foreigner to fancy himself in the midst of a 

VOL. I. 18 



274 Traveli of a Hindoo, 



fpTf^t Hindoo Xational ExLibition. Nothing strikes so 
marlcc-flly a^ the contrai»t between the gri>ss superstitious 
TnummerieT* of a low barbarism on the one hand, and 
the ingenioas wares and manufactures of a high refine- 
ment on the other. But native shop-keeping is yet 
fta/Ily deficient in taste. Behind a gay and gaudy ex- 
terior the shops hide the disorder of a chaos. 

The really worthiest object of all to see in Benares 
i» its College, which is emphatically an architectural 
curiosity — * a gem in building.' Major Kittoe could 
Hf;arcely have given expression to his feelings iu a more 
becoming way than by designing and executing this 
beautiful edifice, to stand as a noble and abiding monu- 
ment in honour of the Indian Seraswattee in her most 
devoted and classic city. It is the right thing in its 
right place — a suitable memorial to perpetuate the la- 
bours of the antiquary in the field of Indian Archaeology. 
The building is immaculate amidst structures of bad 
taste and skill. The glass is all stained. The fountains 
impart a grandeur and state to the institution. The 
library is stored with rare Oriental manuscripts. The 
museum is entertaining for its curiosities. There are 
seen tlic relics of Hindoo pottery in the tenth and 
eleventh centuries. By lying buried in the earth, the 
specimens appear to have sufiered little injury. In the 
compound to the north has been put up the pillar, 
which, standing for many ages upon the river-side near 
Aurungzebe's mosque, had at last been laid prostrate by 
a freak of Mahomedan bigotry. Long had tradition 
regarded this pillar as Shiva's shaft — that it was grad- 



Benares the Seat of Hindoo Learning, 275 

ually sinking in the ground, and that when its top be- 
came level with the earth, all mankind was to be of one 
caste and religion. It is a pity the tradition should not 
have been true to inaugurate the epoch of the most de- 
sirable of all states of things. But the mystery about 
the pillar has been cleared up, and it stands now in all 
the integrity of its being one of Asoca's edict-columns. 
It is a beautiful shaft of one stone, with many carvings 
and inscriptions. From the original position of this 
colimin on the river- side, Benares, in the age of Asoca, 
must be supposed to have extended along the river as 
at the present day, imless it had been put up there on a 
subsequent occasion. 

Benares may be styled the capital of the India of 
the Hindoo. It has always been a city next in size and 
importance to the seat of the sovereign. Hither, at all 
times, have streams of men flowed and concentrated 
from various points ; and its population has always been 
next to that of the capital of the empire. It has in all 
ages exercised the highest intellectual and ecclesiastical 
influence on the land. Here have been formed the 
minds of the most eminent Hindoo philosophers. From 
Benares have emanated and still emanate almost all 
new opinions on questions of Hindoo theology, Hindoo 
philosophy, and Hindoo jurisprudence. The verdict of 
the Benares authorities is final in the Hindoo world. 
To them is made the appeal for all difierences of opiaion 
between the schools of Mithila, of Gour, and of Dravira. 
Here Buddha first preached his reform. Here Sancara 
Achargya won the great Shivite controversial victory. 



w» J. J-1'jw.-^c i 



276 Travels of a Hindoo, 

Here, disguised as a Hindoo boy, Feizi became initiated 
in the Hindoo Shasters. Here at the fountain-head did 
Aurungzebe try to diffuse the leaven of Mahomedanism. 
And here at last has the Benares College been erected, 
to enlighten and form the native population into a new 
Hindoo nation, with new ideas in their heads, and new 
institutions distinguishing their national character. 

Though not half a century has yet elapsed, it now 
appears as almost ante-diluvian, since the Prinseps and 
Tytlers on the one hand, and the Macaulays and the 
Trevelyans on the other, fought the great battle of Na- 
tive Education in India. The result has far exceeded 
the anticipation, and the Anglicists have hooted the 
Orientalists from the field. Just as a lubberly native 
hhur is beside a steamer — -just as an up-country ekah is 
in juxtaposition with a Railway locomotive — so is the 
Sanscrit Bidyala of this city by the side of the Benares 
College. The Pundits of our day seem to do no more 
than perform the vestal duty of preserving the flame of 
Sanscrit learning from extinction. If India needs re- 
generation, it cannot be hoped to be effected by moans 
of Sanscrit tuition. Rich as the Sanscrit language is, 
the vocabulary of the Brahmins has no word for patriot- 
ism. The range of Sanscrit poetical literature extends 
from the simplest fable to the loftiest epic. But in the 
whole compass of that literature, there is not one spirit- 
stirring war-song, like Burns' * Bannockburn,' or Camp- 
bell's * Battle of the Baltic' The Hindoos may have 
produced the first lawgiver in the world ; but in 
their political jurisprudence there is not the slightest 



Defects of the Sanscrit Language. 277 

exposition of the principles on which are based the 
Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Habeas 
Corpus Act. The Upanishads and Dursanas have, in- 
deed, received the favourable verdict of the most com- 
petent judges ; but nowhere in their philosophy do 
the Brahmins inculcate the sentiment 'better death 
than slavery.' In their history is found not one in- 
stance of political martyrdom, like Cato or Sidney. Of 
what good then will the Sanscrit be to help India in her 
social reform, in her political aspirations, in her efforts 
to keep pace with the nations of Europe. The Sanscrit 
may improve the head, but will not elevate the mind 
or purify the heart. The effects of Sanscrit are best 
visible in a modern Pundit of Nuddea, who is good 
only for wrangling and quoting ancient texts, but not 
for originating a new institution, or for embarking in 
a new project for national progress. The Sanscrit has 
ceased to be a qualification, rather it is looked upon as 
a disqualification. The Sanscrit is good only for adorn- 
ment, but is not of any use in the actual business of 
life. As sentimentalists we may advocate for the lan- 
guage in which Valmiki spoke and Calidas has sung. 
As utilitarians we would have the language that should 
teach us the truths to abridge distance and economize 
time. To quote Longinus' famous remark, the Sanscrit, 
like the Odyssey, resembles the setting sun ; the Eng- 
lish, like the Iliad, resembles the rising sun. The 
Sanscrit is the gray-headed matron to be respected for 
her age ; the English is the fresh maid of fourteen to 
be loved for her youthful charms. The decision of the 



278 Travels of a Hindoo, 

question between Sanscrit and English is easy. The 
first is romance, the last is bread — and the common 
saying is that * romance is good, but bread is better.' 

The Hindoo mind is wedged in prejudices, and the 
Sanscrit ' cannot minister to a mind diseased.' The 
Hindoo patient wants food, and not poison. The be- 
nighted native wants to have the film removed from 
his eyes ; but the Sanscrit surrounds him * with a cloud 
instead, and ever-during dark.' He wants to advance 
— which is the watchword of Europe ; but the Sanscrit 
would keep him far in the rear of nations, and hold his 
mind in bondage to antiquated notions. The Sanscrit 
held good some two or three thousand years ago ; it is 
effete in the present day. The Sanscrit belongs to the 
age of the bow and arrow — and of travelling in cara- 
vans. The English belongs to the age of Armstrongs, 
Railways, and Electric Telegraphs. To cultivate the 
Sanscrit would be to doom ourselves to seek a grain of 
truth from a bushel of chaff" — to perpetuate the reign 
of error, and to ignore those high achievements of the 
human intellect which have changed the face of the 
world, and ameliorated the condition of mankind. 
Surely, we do not want to uphold the geography of 
the Golden Meru and Seas of Butter ; but to know the 
use of the mariner's compass and steer upon the ocean. 
We do not want to re^dve the davs of Sudra iornorance ; 
but to learn the art of casting t}^es to diff'use know- 
ledge through every corner of the land. We do not 
want to return to the days of Sutteeism ; but to inti-o- 
duce the re-marriage of our widows. We do not want 



The Question of popular Education, 279 

dreamy religious speculations; but practical energy 
and matter-of-fact knowledge. We want to be men 
of the nineteenth century, and to be admitted into 
the comity of civilized nations. Unquestionably, it is 
through the agency of the English that this object can 
ever be hoped to be accomplished. But a question 
may arise as to what should be the medium for educat- 
ing the tiller of the soil, weaver, manufacturer, me- 
chanic, artisan, — all those, in short, who are best known 
under the designation of people. Here we must de- 
plore the curse of Babel, and ponder upon the difficulty 
of clianging the colloquial patois of the common people, 
£:nd the slow progress of innovations in language. It 
must be a long time before the study of English can 
become congenial to the tastes and available to the 
means of those who hold the plough, tend the oxen, 
. and toil at the looms. Until it can be popularized, the 
Vernacular must be the medium of their tuition. But 
lierc, again, a staff of good scholars in English should 
devote their labours to improve the quality of instruc- 
tion that is to be imparted ; or otherwise the inert 
masses of our common people would not be roused to a 
proper sense of their rights and interests, and would 
not be enabled to maintain a successful competition 
with the growing intelligence of a progressive world. 
Xot altogether to abandon the Sanscrit, which has 
been pronounced to be 'more perfect than the Greek, 
more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely re- 
fined than either,' let the study of that precious lan- 
guage be left to amateurs and philologists, who only 



aSo Travels of a Hindoo. 

can do justice to its merits. But for substantial and 
immediate benefit to society, the study of English litera- 
ture and science should predominate in our schools and 
colleges — as is the power of that nation dominant in 
the land. 

To sum up the picture of Benares. Topographically, 
or materially, the conditions of things may not have 
altered much. But morally, the influence of a better 
civilization has operated to introduce signal changes in 
that condition. The present city is not so strictly divided, 
as a Hindoo town used to be in the Hindoo ages, into 
separate quarters for each caste, when an unlawful in- 
trusion into another's locality was a casus belli amongst 
the inhabitants. The Brahmin and the Sudra, the 
native and the alien, now live together intermingled in 
one and the same quarter. The great Mahomedan 
mosque rises in the very heart of the Hindoo city. 
The Jain temple is situated between two shrines of 
Mahadeo. There is probably no place in the world 
which contains such a motley population as the town of 
Benares. In all ages this population has been split 
into innumerable sects. Under the Hindoos, no two 
sects had ever lived on friendly terms with each other. 
There was no sympathy between the Brahmaite and 
the Gunaputya — between the Suryaite and the Ramat. 
The epicurean Shivite often assailed the platonic Yish- 
nuvite. In his turn, the rake gave no quarters to the 
w^assailer. The war of sect against sect was fiercer 
than the war of race against race. The struggle lasted 
for generations, till the Mahomedan came in and made 



Moral Improvement. 281 

the melee grow worse. But each man now enjoys the 
benefit of toleration in the exercise of his reKgion, and 
lives in harmony with his neighbour. The Shivite has 
now no power to drive out the Vishnuvite — the Brahmin 
to oust a Jain. Amidst the desperate and disorderly 
rabble of ancient Benares, crime must have been fear- 
fully prevalent. Each man must have emancipated 
himself from the restraints of law. The peace of the 
city must have been repeatedly disturbed. To this 
disorganized state must principally be ascribed the rise 
of those notorious desperadoes — the Goondas and Bankas, 
who had in a preceding age made themselves the terror 
of Benares. They were the means that families em- 
ployed to pay off their mutual scores. They settled 
the accounts of all private brawls and long-standing 
feuds between individuals. The Goondas finished off 
men without any detection of their crime, and were 
objects of a mysterious dread to the wealthy and timid. 
In their days, the young Lothario who stole the heart 
of a family woman often disappeared all of a sudden, 
and was heard of no more. But not one of those 
half-bully and half-dandy bravoes are now seen to strut 
and swagger about the streets. The machinery for 
keeping the peace now works with an unprecedented 
efficiency. The Koticallee is situated in the thick of 
the town. Order is preserved such as had never been 
known in Benares. The knave and the libertine have 
seen the end of their domineering. No man^s life nor 
any woman's honour are now exposed to risk. No boy 
or girl can now be set in the bazar with apiece of straw on 



282 Travels of a Hindoo, 

fhcir heads for sale in bondage.* No creditor now dares 
to apply the spine-bonder and the kiddj/f to his debtor. 
For resisting as exorbitant the demands of Government, 
no koor or circular pile of wood can now be raised to 
bum upon it an old woman, such as Lord Teignmouth 
saw at Benares, in 1788. Foreigners cried shame upon 
the seminaries of Hindoo learning, and schools and 
colleges have arisen to displace the primitive tales that 
were no better than the long cow-sheds of an indigo 
tactoYj. The Sudra now reads the Vedas, but no 
magistrate * drops hot oil into his mouth and ears.' 
ITo Mussulman now needs to feign himself a Hindoo to 
learn the Shasters. The progress of change is no- 
where so clearly visible as in the tone which the Hindoo 
mind has imbibed from the pressure of surrounding 
opinions — from the spirit of the age. Heretofore, men ac- 
quiring wealth elsewhere retired hither to expend it in 
a round of idolatrous ceremonies. But far other objects 
now engage the attention of the Benareso, than emu- 
lating each other in the erection of a ghaut or temple. 
Religion has ceased to be the staple of their talk. No 
man is now ambitious of filling a space in the public 
eye by acts and institutions of idolatry. For forty 
centuries had the eye of the Hindoo been upturned only 
heavenward. He has now bent down his head to look 
to the concerns of the earth he inhabits. The cares of 
the present have superseded his anxieties about futurity. 

* * Ariclnindm,' Act v., Sceno i. 

t Tlie »p'nic-hen(h'r Avas an instniment of tortnro, which, wlion 
ap])lic(l to a man, made liim contract his hody l>y bonding forwards. 
The kiddy was another which pressed down the fingers. 



Secrole,— former Outrages, 283 

The promotion of physical comforts, by means of hos- 
pitals, dispensaries, and sanatory improvements, forms 
now dearer objects than schemes for the spiritual wel- 
fare of his species. From its climax has Hindoo idola- 
try begun to wane. To quote the common slang of the 
day, it has seen ' the beginning of its end.' 

In SecroUy no man fails to remember Vizier Ali's 
massacre of Mr Cherry, and the single-handed defence 
of Mr Davis — a civilian -judge — with a hog- spear against 
a host of assailants. The memory of Vizier Ali was long 
cherished by the prostitutes and dancing-women of 
Benares, among whom the greater portion of his pen- 
sion was squandered. No European who passed that 
city for twenty years after that Nabob's arrest and con- 
finement in Fort William but heard from the windows 
songs in his praise and in praise of the massacre. 

The spot where orphan boys and girls of the Church 
Mission School now receive their tuition was once a 
scene of Thug murders and robberies. Long did way- 
farers pass it with a shudder after sunset. In the com- 
pound of that Church is pointed out a deep well, into 
which the bodies of the victims used to be thrown. 

In 1781 Warren Hastings pubKcly rode through the 
streets of Benares behind the hoicdah of the Shazada, 
carrying a fan of peacock's feathers in his hand. In 
1860, every native in Benares has to salaam to a passing 
European. The Englishman is no more the deican of 
the house of Timoor, but the Suzerain of India. Last 
year a rich Baboo from Calcutta narrowly escaped horse- 
whipping for failing to stop his gharry and salute an 



284 Travels of a Hindoo, 

officer driving along the same road. It was audacious 
in the Mogul times to raise an umbrella in the presence 
of the Sovereign. It is audacious in the present times 
to drive in a carriage and pair and omit to bow to an 
Englishman — who is an infinitesimal representative of 
the sovereign.* 

Our lawyer gave us a most startling instance of the 
procedure which Mofussil functionaries sometimes choose 
to adopt. Two years ago a native attorney of the Su- 
preme Court had come to conduct a case at Benares. He 
had been accompanied by an European gentleman of the 
bar. One morning, the attorney was surprised to find 
the Darogah.of the city come and place him under ar- 
rest. The astounded attorney could think of no earthly 
ofience that he had committed, for which he could be 
come upon as a culprit. The Darogah also could not 
assign any reason for his proceedings. He was asked 
to produce his warrant, but could show none. He had 
merely received the hookiim of his superior — and a 
hookum is law in the Mofussil. * If such is the state of 
things you live under, Darogah Sahib/ said the attorney'-, 
* then I am most willing to obey that law.' Dropping 
a line or two to his friend, the barrister, he at once pro- 
ceeded with the Darogah. It was not yet cutcherry- 
time, and they had to go on to the house of the oflicial. 
He was engaged after breakfast in a game of chess. The 

* * There would be as much indignation experienced at any attempt 
on the part of natives to use'the staging bungalows, as there is now 
expressed by some Europeans at Calcutta at their audacity in intrud- 
ing upon "ladies and gentlemen in first-class carriages." ' — My Diary 
■in India. 



Monument of Col, IVilford. 285 

attorney was made to wait for two hours in an outer 
verandah. His friend, the barrister, arrived, when the 
official made haste to come out, and take the depositions 
of the attorney, respecting the whereabouts of his client, 
and the nature of his case. He was then told to go 
away, without one word of courteous explanation or 
apology for his having been brought up as a felon. 

In the English burial-ground at Secrole, the most 
interesting monument is that of Colonel Wilford. The 
Hindoo nation has reason to venerate the memory of 
that indefatigable Sanscrit scholar, who had almost 
Hindooized himself by a residence in Benares from 1788 
to 1822, and who at length mingled his dust in the soil 
of that great seat of Brahminical learning. There was a 
period when many Englishmen loved India not for the 
sake of its cotton, indigo, or saltpetre, but as the mother- 
country of Sanscrit, — when there existed an intense 
curiosity concerning the literature, the religion, and the 
antiquities of the subjects of their eastern dominion, — and 
when they were willing enough to repay the debt which 
the world owed to the genius and wisdom of the Hindoos. 
The imperial Romans behaved not towards the Greeks 
as conquerors to the conquered, but as pupils to their 
masters. ' I know nothing more glorious to the Greeks,^ 
says Chateaubriand, * than these words of Cicero — " Re- 
collect, Quintus, that you govern the Greeks, who civil- 
ized all nations by teaching them mildness and humanity, 
and to whom Rome is indebted for all the knowledge 
she possesses.'' IVTien we consider what Rome was at 
the time of Pompey and Caesar, what Cicero himself was. 



286 Travels of a Hindoo, 

we shall find in these words a magnificent panegyric.' 
It is the master of the world complimenting the master 
of the arts and sciences. Now, the Athens which civil- 
ized Europe had, in her turn, been civilized by Benares. 
The city of Seraswattee has the precedence of the city 
of Minerva. The Hindoos are acknowledged as the 
first to have started in the race of civilization. In the 
same manner that Cicero and Atticus went to Athens 
to study eloquence at its source, did Lycurgus and Py- 
thagoras travel to India to learn law and philosophy at 
their sources. * When we strive to pierce the mysteri- 
ous gloom that shrouds an infant world, it is the heaven- 
aspiring peaks of Central Asia that we first discern, 
iUumined by those primeval myths which, like the 
dazzling coruscations of a polar winter, play fantastically 
amidst the night of ages, ere history's dawn has yet 
streaked time's hoary horizon with its earliest ray ; and 
when at length the opening mom dispels these vision- 
ary splendours, we behold the luxuriant plains of the 
Ganges already occupied by an intelligent people with 
its philosophers and sages attempting, by rendering 
matter the shadowy phenomena of mind, to idealize the 
metempsychosis of nature into an eternal, self-emanating, 
and self-absorbing unity. It is to these Hindoo sages 
that we are indebted for most of the philosophical and 
theological ideas,' that we will keep striving to weave 
into u system that shall finally explain what we ought, 
ere this, to be aware will, for beings endowed with our 
limited faculties, for ever remain inexplicable. It would, 
in fact, be easv to show, were it not foreign to our pur- 



Hindoo the earliest Civilization, 287 

pose^ how the metaphysical speculations of these sages, 
after being recast in a classic mould by Plato, were in- 
grafted by the first Fathers of the Church on the primi- 
tive doctrines of Christianity, through which they still 
exercise a powerful influence over the most civilized 
nations of the globe.' * The civilization of the ancient 
Hindoos is that of the forerunner ; the civilization of 
the modern Europeans is that of the outrunner. On 
the issues of the question in dispute between Sir William 
Jones and Mr Mill, depend the most important political 
results. The one laboured to eradicate from the minds 
of the governors the false and pernicious notion that the 
governed were an illiterate and barbarous people, — and to 
inspire each with a mutual appreciation of the other, to 
cement themselves into a loyal nation round a parental 
throne. The other laboured to lower the ruled in the 
eyes of the rulers, and to inflame the minds of each 
with a mutual hatred of the other, till things tend to a 
crisis, called by the terrible name of rebellion. It was 
generous in Sir William Jones to visit Benares, and re- 
gret his departure from that city, like Julian quitting 
the Academy. It was cruel in Mill to labour only to 
prove the Hindoos a nation of idolaters, forgers, and 
perjurers. The behaviour of the great Ca)sar towards 
the Athenians should teach the Anglo-Saxon to ' forgive 
the living for the sake of the dead.' 

The unanimous concert with which, forty years ago, 
the inhabitants of Benares sat in dhurna against the im- 
position of a house-tax, is now in marked contrast with 

♦ BlackweU. 



288 Travels of a Hindoo. 

their meek submission to the imposition of the Income- 
tax. The Disarming Act has not raised the whisper of 
a complaint. It is remarkable, that a city like Benares, 
which abounds with so many hudmashes, and which has 
often been the scene of tumult and trouble, under the 
least pretext, passed off rather quietly in the recent 
mutiny. There had not been felt the same degree of 
apprehension, as in the time of Cheyte Sing. There 
was no massacre^ as in the rebellion of Vizier Ali. No 
one had to make his escape out of a window under cover 
of night, like Warren Hastings. No European party 
had to conceal itself in a field of tall niaize. No mes- 
sages had to be written in the smallest hand on small 
slips of paper, and sent rolled and put up in the ear- 
ring bores of the messengers. The loyalty of the Rajah 
was an example to the populace. Only the 4th of June, 
1857, was a critical day. On the morning of that day, 
both the Sepoys and Sikhs at the station had been called 
on the parade. To the Sepoys was given the order to 
pile arms ; they refused to obey. The officers sternly 
reiterated their order ; the Sepoys stood in sullen re- 
fusal as before. No time was lost then to open a 
masked battery upon them. The wary Sepoys imme- 
diately fell prostrate on the ground, and, crawling on all 
fours, slimk away from the field. Unhappily, at the 
position where the Sikh troops stood, the shots thinned 
a few of their comrades. Suspecting this mischance to 
be a secret design laid against them, they were about to 
declare themselves in a state of open revolt. But the 
officers succeeded in disabusing their minds and restor- 



Benares quiet in the recent Mutiny. 2S9 

ing their confidence. The news of unsuccessful disarma- 
ment threw the city into a great consternation. The 
Hindoo popxdation trembled for the safety of their lives 
and properties. The English residents thought it for 
certain to have their throats cut. But contrary to all 
apprehension, the rebel Sepoys chose to disperse them- 
selves in difierent directions. Full twenty-four hours 
elapsed without any visible sign of the danger. Ifot 
one Sepoy was heard to be tarrying in the neighbour- 
hood. Next day, when the city was thought to have 
tided over its worst crisis, the excitement went down, 
and a feeling of security began gradually to return to 
men's business and bosoms. 

The people most alarmed had been the Bengalees. 
They abound here some ten thousand in number. Their 
quarter is expressly called the Bengalee-tola, Once, in 
the days of the Pal sovereigns, the Bengalee was a man 
of conspicuous enterprise and military spirit. He then 
marched his armies to beyond the Indus, and ruled as 
the Suzerain of India. From a copper tablet discovered 
at Monghyr, Rajah Deva Pal Deva appears to have 
reigned in the ninth century as far as the Carnatic and 
Thibet. But the most glorious chapter in the historv 
of the Bengalee has been quite forgotten.. He is at 
present the most degenerate of all Indians. His country 
was regarded by the Moguls as little better than a Bot- 
any Bay — a backslum of India peopled by the worst of 
all men under the sun. The Hindoostanee would not 
condescend to own a nationality with him. He is par- 
ticularly hated for aping the English, and was therefore 

VOL. I. 19 



290 Travels of a Hindoo., 

hounded and hunted by the rebels with a peculiar ma- 
lignity. Our host, Baboo G , told us that on the 

great panic-day he expected every moment to be num- 
bered with the dead. He had removed with his family 
to the house of a confidential Hindoostanee friend, with 
whom he had previously arranged for an asylum in the 
event of an extreme crisis. He there kept himself in 
concealment for one whole day, praying for the speedy 
return of order. Many such instances had occurred in 
that dreadful year ^to show the stuff that the Bengalees 
were made of.' And yet there had been raised the cry 
to charge them with a sympathy for the cause of the 
rebels. The Bengalee character is the best defence 
against that charge. Of all the accused persons, the 
Bengalees were the most unlikely to have been con- 
cerned in the hazardous undertaking. Palsied Bengal 
is the least of all to be expected to brace its nerves for 
the most energetic of all human actions. The Bengalee 
has a talkative humour — no appetite for peril, no taste 
for cold steel. The most powerful motives which can 
induce a human being to face danger fail to rouse his 
sluggish nature, and he watches from a safe distance the 
battle on which depends his own fate, and the fate of his 
nation. In nothing is the Bengalee so competent as to 
take care of himself. The greatest of all his Solicitudes 
is to run the smallest risk of hurt — to preserve his neck 
from a scrape. He can speak daggers, but can look nor 
use none. The * hue of his resolution is sicklied o'er 
with the pale cast of thought.' His most favourite 
maxim is that 'prudence is the better part of valour.' 



Excursion to Sarnatli, 291 

Of his own shortcomings, of his non-miKtary character, 
none is so well aware as the Bengalee himself. He is 
fully conscious that his unwarlike habits are incompati- 
ble with his state of independence. He knows very well, 
that if the English were to leave him master of himself 
this day, he would on the next have to apply to the 
British Parliament for succour with epistles styled The 
Groans of the Bengalee. He would have to represent 
that the Mussulmans and Hindoostanees, on the one 
hand, chase him into the sea and forests ; the sea and 
forests, on the other, throw him back upon the Mussul- 
mans and Hindoostanees. 'Nothing extenuate, nor 
set down aught in malice ' — a Young Bengal as yet has 
only the * nodosities of the oak without its strength, and 
the contorsions of the sibyl without the inspiration.' 

Excursion to Sarnath, which is about three miles 
and a half north from the outskirts of the city. It falls 
within the sacred enclosure of the Panch-kosi road, that, 
having a circumference of fifty miles, forms the bound- 
ary of the jurisdiction of Biseswara, and is guarded and 
defended by the deified Kotwal Bhoyrubnath, his Dand- 
pan, and other agents, from evil spirits and evil per- 
sons — or, in other words, which marks the traditional 
extent of Benares that covered the area within its cir- 
cuit in the remote Hindoo ages. The city thus circum- 
scribed refers to that most ancient city of the early 
Brahminic and Buddhistic epochs — of the Gupta and 
Pal periods, which occupied a more inland site and ex- 
tended within more enlarged limits than is done by 
modern Benares. Of the existence of this great city, 



292 Travels of a Hindoo, 

the remains at Sarnatli and on the banks of the Barana 
aflFord the most convincing proofs. Sarnath is spoken 
of in the Ceylon annals as having formed an integral 
part of ancient Benares. It is famous amongst the Bud- 
dhists as the scene where Buddha * turned the wheel of 
the law,' and may be distinguished as having been the 
Buddhist Benares from that of the Brahmins. The 
name of Sarnath, construed to mean the * Bull- Lord ' as 
well as the 'Best Lord,' is said to have been derived 
from a small Brahminical temple of Shiva, on the spot. 
But, most probably, the appellation is Buddhistic, and 
has a reference to Buddha under the name of Saran- 
ganath, or the ' Lord of Deer,' to confirm which sup- 
position there is still a lake called Sarang Tal, as well 
as a ramna, or antelope preserve, in the neighbourhood. 
Sarnath must be supposed to have been in its highest 
splendour under the Gupta kings of Maghada and the 
Pal kings of Gour. Its destruction must be traced to 
the antagonism of the Brahmins, and is to be dated 
from the middle of the eleventh or the beginning of the 
twelfth century. In the lapse of ages, there has ac- 
cumxdated a soil under which lie buried the ruins of the 
temples, colleges, hospitals, and tombs of a people, who 
have ceased to exist for eight long centuries. Until 
lately, numerous statues and idols of Buddhistic worship, 
together with many carved stones, were strewed about 
the spot, but which were carted away and thrown into 
the Barana to serve as a breakwater to the piers of the 
bridge over that stream. 

Dhamek, which is probably an abbreviation of the 



Sarnath, — the great Buddhist Tower, 293 

Sanscrit Dharma-opodesakaf or the Teacher of Wisdom, 
is the great stone Buddhist sttipa that forms the princi- 
pal object of curiosity at Sarnath. It is a soKd roimd 
tower, 93 feet in diameter at the base, and 110 feet 
above the surrounding ruins, but 128 feet above the 
general level of the country. The lower part of the 
structure, to a height of 43 feet, is built entirely of 
Chunar stone, and the upper part of large bricks that 
were in fashion amongst the ancient Hindoos. The 
building is ornamented with beautiful niches, and richly 
carved bands forming scrolls of the lotus plant, * with 
graceful stalks, delicate leaves, tender buds, and full- 
blown flowers.' There are also elegant representations 
of the Chackwa or Brahmini Geese, as well as human 
figures seated upon lotus flowers, and holding branches 
of that plant in their hands. * With the single excep- 
tion of the Taj Mahal at Agra,' says General Cunning- 
ham, * there is no other Indian building that has been 
so often described as the great Buddhist tower at Sar- 
nath.' It is said to have been built by Asoca on the 
spot where Buddha first turned the wheel of the law, 
and forms a building twenty- one centuries old. Fa 
Hian saw it in the beginning of the fifth century, and 
distinguishes it as one of ' the eight divine towers com- 
memorating the acts of Buddha's terrestrial career.' 
Hwen Thsang visited it a hundred and forty years later, 
and saw enshrined in it * a copper figure of Buddha 
represented in the act of turning the wheel of the law ' 
— or a statue of Buddha the Teacher, * with his hands 
raised over his breast, and the thumb and forefinger of 



394 Travels of a Hindoo. 

the right hand placed on the little finger of the left 
hand for the purpose of enforcing his argument/ In 
these times, many a scientific gentleman is attracted to 
visit the curious and venerable tower for archaeological 
investigation. In the opinion of Major Kittoe, *the 
arrangement of this tower was precisely the same as at 
Rangoon, rows and rows of small temples, imabrellas, 
pillars, &c., around the great tope.' 

In the neighbourhood of the Dhamek, is the ruin of 
another large brick stupa. In 1794 this tower was first 
excavated by the Dewan of Cheyte Sing to obtain bricks 
for the erection of a bazar, when * two vessels of stone 
and green marble, one inside the other, had been dis- 
covered, the inner vessel containing a few human bones, 
some decayed pearls, gold leaves, and other jewels of no 
value, along with a statue of Buddha, bearing an in- 
scription dated in Samvat 1083, a.d. 1026.' It is re- 
corded in this inscription, that 'Mahi Pala, Rajah of 
Goura (Bengal), having worshipped the lotus-like feet 
of Sree Dharmarasi (Buddha), caused to be erected in 
Kasi hundreds of Isana and Ghitraghanta, Sri Sthira 
Pal and his younger brother Vasanta Pal having re- 
stored religion, raised this tower with an inner chamber 
and eight large niches.' This was a relic tower, sup- 
posed to have originally been a hemispherical stupa^ 82 
feet in diameter, and not less than 50 feet in height. 
It has been reduced to a ruin by the vandalism of Cheyte 
Sing's Dewan. 

Choukandi, or Luvi-ka-kodany so called from the leap 
of an Ahir by the name of Luri from its top, is a lofty 



Sarnathy — another Tower. 295 

mound of solid brickwork, surmounted with an octagonal 
building. Hwen Thsang describes this tower to have 
been * no less than 300 feet in height. The lofty monu- 
ment sparkled with the rarest and most precious jewels. 
It was not ornamented with rows of niches, neither had 
it the usual bell-shaped cupola, but its summit was 
crowned with a sort of religious vase, turned upside 
down, on the top of which was an arrow.' The upper 
portion of the building no longer exists, and the mound 
in question has lost much of its original loftiness — 
measuring now not more than 98 feet in height. The 
octagonal building on the top was raised by Hoomayoon, 
with an inscription over one of the doorways, recording 
its erection as a memorial of that emperor's ascent of 
the mound. 

The once flourishing condition of Sarnath, is per- 
haps mysteriously alluded to in the Kasi-khund, The 
account of the glorious reign of Divodasa, and the uni- 
versal adoption of Buddhism by the males and females 
of the city, may be understood as referring to the bene- 
ficent administration of the Buddhist Kings of Gour, 
and their conversion of Benares into a Buddhistic city. 
The humiliation of the Shivites seems to be indicated by 
the myth of Shiva's exit from Benares, and his exile on 
Mounl Mandar. The god is represented as having be- 
come disconsolate for the loss of his favourite city, and 
to have at various times had recourse to the aid of 
Brahma, Surya, Ganesha, and others for its recovery. 
This is, perhaps, meant to state that the various sects 
of those divinities, embarking in a common cause, made 



2^6 Travels of a Hindoo. 

only fruitless efforts from time to time to subvert a re- 
ligion which had the powerful support of the sovereign. 
The hopeless Shivites had to bide their time till the 
Rajahs of Kanouge, becoming predominant in the land, 
annexed Benares under their sway in the eleventh cen- 
tury. The Kanougians of that period were stanch be- 
lievers in the Puranic creed. It was from Kanouge 
that Bengal had afterwards to indent for Brahmins to 
restore Hindoo orthodoxy in that benighted and heretic 
land. The success of the Kanougians produced a strong 
reaction in favour of the Shivites. They now rose up 
in arms, and put forth their whole strength for the re- 
entry of Shiva into Benares — the restitution of his wor- 
ship in that city. Never did sect over sect triumpli 
with such signal success. The Buddhists were over- 
powered rapidly, completely, and for ever. Their tem- 
ples and towers were razed to the ground so as not to 
leave a trace of them behind. The images of their gods 
were torn from their shrines, defaced and broken, and 
then flung into the streets. Their monasteries and col- 
leges were attacked as dens of heresies. The monks of 
the one, and the professors of the other, were hunted 
with an implacable revenge. The inhabitants were at- 
tacked, and allowed no refuge but in flight and dis- 
persion. All Sarnath was reduced to ashes, and in 
that fair city reigned only desolation and silence. The 
vestiges yet discernible bear abundant marks of the 
agency of fire, which had been employed by the Brah- 
mins to exterminate their enemies, and uproot all land- 
marks of the existence of Sarnath. To quote Major 



The Destruction of Sarnath. 297 

Kittoe : * all has been sacked and burnt, priests, temples, 
idols, all together. In some places bones, iron, timber, 
idols, &c., are all fused into huge heaps ; and this has 
happened more than once/ Proofs of a great final 
catastrophe by fire have been afibrded by * pieces of 
charred wood with nails sticking in some of them,' 
' stores of unhusked rice only partially burnt,' and ' evi- 
dent traces of fire on the stone pillars, imibrellas, and 
statues.' From 'the remains of ready-made wheaten 
cakes,' and from 'portions of wheat and other grain 
spread out in one of the cells,' the destruction of Sarnath 
is concluded to have been ' both sudden and unexpected.* 
Such a conclusion is well borne out by the following 
account of Mr Thomas, late Judge of Benares : — ' The 
chambers on the eastern side of the square were found 
filled with a strange medley of uncooked food, hastily 
abandoned on their floors, — pottery of everyday life, 
nodes of brass produced apparently by the melting down 
of the cooking vessels in common use. Above these 
again were the remnants of the charred timbers of the 
roof, with iron nails still remaining in them, above 
which again appeared broken bricks mixed with earth 
and rubbish to the height of the extant walls, some six 
feet from the original flooring. Every item here bore 
evidence of a complete conflagration, and so intense 
seems to have been the heat, that in portions of the wall 
still standing, the clay, which formed the substitute for 
lime in binding the brick-work, is baked to a similar 
consistency with the bricks themselves. In short, all 
existing indications lead to a necessary inference that 



298 Travels of a Hindoo. 

the destruction of the building, by whomsoever caused, 
was effected by fire applied by the hand of an extermin- 
ating adversary, rather than by any ordinary accidental 
conflagration.' 

The work of excavation at Samath had been going 
on until a recent period. The idols and scxdptures dug 
up from that place have scarcely turned out in an entire 
state. Many of these curiosities are deposited in the 
museum of the Benares College. Among the various 
articles exhumed the most remarkable are ' pestles and 
mortar sills (or flat stones for mashing), loonga^, &c., 
&c., found in a large quadrangle or hospitaly * fine speci- 
mens of carved bricks ; ' ' heads of Buddha, made of 
pounded bricks and road-earth, coated with fine shell- 
lime, in beautiful preservation ; ' * a fine head of a female 
in white marble (partly calcined), and a portion of 
the arm ; ' * two stone umbrellas, one in fragments 
{burnt) of six feet diameter, mushroom-shaped, and an- 
other, also hurnty but not broken, elegantly carved in 
scroll on the inside, but nearly defaced by the action of 
saltpetre ; ' ^ a square, elaborately corniced block, that 
was the seat of the Teacher for the daily reading and 
expounding of the Buddhist Scriptures ; ' and * an im- 
pression in burnt clay, of a seal, 1^ inch in diameter, 
with two lines of Sanscrit, surmounted by a lozenge- 
shaped device, with two recumbent deer as supporters.' 
The device of the two deer is said to prove that the seal 
belonged to a monk of the Deer Park monastery at 
Sarnath, whose name is stated in the inscription to have 



Sarnath, — Monasteries, Temples, Mosques. 299 

been Sri Saddharma Hakshita, or the clierisher of the 
true Dharmma. 

According to Hwen Thsang, there were no less than 
30 monasteries at Sarnath, containing about 3000 monks. 
These edifices must have been of various ages — having 
been built from time to time during the ascendancy of 
Buddhism from the time of Asoca to that of the Gupta 
dynasty. Their nimiber must have increased under the 
Pal kings of Bengal. Few of the Buddhistic buildings 
have escaped the ruthless hand of spoliation. The 
Brahmins demolished the greater number of them, and 
raised upon their sites temples, which in their turn were 
again converted into mosques by the Mahomedans. 
Upon the sites of Buddhist temples and from the mate- 
rials of Buddhist monasteries, did the Brahmins build 
their shrines of Ad-Biseswara, of Kirt-Biseswara, of 
Banee Madhoo, the Bakarya Koond, and others. Many 
of these fell into the hands of the Mussulmans, and were 
altered and modified by them to form the Mosque of 
Aurungzebe,the Kangura Mosque, the Alamgiri Mosque, 
and the Choukhamba Mosque. Of the early Vedist 
Benares there probably exist no remains, and supposing 
them to do, it is difficult to recognize them. But the 
debris of Buddhist Benares ' may be traced in the mul- 
titude of carved stones, portions of capitals, shafts, bases, 
friezes, architraves, and so forth — inserted into modern 
buildings in the northern and north-western quarters of 
the city. These fragments exhibit a great diversity of 
style, from the severely simple to the exceedingly ornate, 



300 Travels of a Hindoo. 

and are in themselves a sufficient proof of the former 
existence of buildings, of styles of architecture cor- 
responding to themselves, yet differing in many im- 
portant respects from the styles of modem Hindoo and 
Mahomedan structures, and coinciding with those of 
ancient temples and monasteries of the Gupta and pre- 
Gupta periods, the ruins of which are still existing in 
various parts of India.' It either indicates a great 
ignorance or deep craftiness of the present Brahmins to 
state that Benares forms the city of Shiva from an un- 
fathomable antiquity, when Buddha had been worship- 
ped there for more than a thousand years, when the 
temple of Ad-Biseswara may be detected to have been 
raised upon the ruins of a Buddhist monastery, and 
when the Kasi of the early Hindoos occupied a different 
site from that of Benares, which, in popular tradition, 
is said to have been built and named by Rajah Banar, 
probably at some period between the fifth and eighth 
centuries of the Christian era — a period remarkable for 
the influence once possessed by the followers of Shiva, 
and for those desolating wars of Sambhu and Ni-sambhu 
(Shivites and Buddhists), which are magnified to have 
been the most bloody in the annals of Hindoo warfare. 



30I 



CHAPTER VII. 

October 26. — Fast as four wheels and a four-legged 
animal could carry us, we were on our way to Allaha- 
bad. The night was high when we passed by Gopi- 
gunge, missing that place of mutiny-notoriety. By 
eight o'clock this morning we had glibly rolled over a 
road seventy-two miles long, and stood upon the left 
bank of the Ganges. On the other side rose in \\em the 
city of Pururava, the Pratishthana of the Aryas, the 
Prayag of the Puranists, and the Allahabad of Akbar. 
The rivef intervened, and on its surface lay the bridge 
of boats floating like a leviathan. The bridge was yet 
incomplete for an opening in the middle, — and it told 
much against our patience to lose two precious hours in 
crossing by the ferry of a primitive age. 

The first thing we did on landing was to go at once 
to the famous prayag or junction of the Ganges and 
Jumna. It was not until standing upon that tongue of 
land, where the two holy streams have met, that we felt 
ourselves really in the city of Allahabad, The Ganges 
at Calcutta is scarcely an interesting object to the dull 
eye of familiarity. The Ganges at Benares is forgotten 
in the more absorbing associations of the city of Shiva. 



302 Travels of a Hindoo. 

But the Ganges at Allahabad is contemplated as the 
eternal river, which rolls on, watering the fairest valley 
of the earth, and forms, the imperial highway on which, 
pass and repass ten thousand fleets through every day 
of the year. From the grandeur of its aspect and its 
importance in the economy of nature, it has become an 
object of the most devout veneration alike in the eyes 
of the Brahmaites, Shivites, and Vishnuvites. There is 
the floating bridge of boats — in which a warmer imagin- 
ation than ours might see the fabled elephant which 
vaunted to withstand the force of its mighty stream. 

The Jumna, a novel sight, was for the first time be- 
held, with enthusiasm. Deeply sunk below high craggy 
banks, rolled slowly on a sluggish stream of crystal blue 
water. This was the Jumna — the Kalitidi of our fore- 
fathers, a name associated in the Hindoo mind with the 
adventures of many an ancient Rajah and Rishi — ^the 
loves of Radha and Krishna. The spot where the sister 
Nuddees (Greek Naiades) meet, makes a magnificent 
prospect. The Ganges has a turbid, muddy current — 
the Jumna, a sparkling stream. Each at first tries to 
keep itself distinct, till, happy to meet after a long 
parting, they run into each other's embrace, and losing 
themselves into one, flow in a common stream. The 
Ganges strikes the fancy as more matronly of the two 
— the Jumna, a gayer youthful sister. 

There is certainly more of poetry than philosophy 
in all the religions professed by mankind. The ' Swer- 
ga ' of the Puranists, the ' Paradise ' of the Mahomedans, 
and the * Last Judgment Day ' of the Christians, trans- 



Allahabad, — the Prayag. 303 

cend all Homeric poetry. Religion is diflSdent to address 
itself purely to tlie understanding, which is cold and 
cautious to accept its statements. It therefore seeks the 
aid of poetry to help its cause. This explains the rea- 
son why lovely spots and romantic heights are particu- 
larly chosen for places of worship. There is scarcely a 
lovelier spot than the prayag of Allahabad. The broad 
expanse of waters, the verdant banks, and the pictur- 
esque scenery, tell upon the mind and fascinate the pil- 
grim. Here, therefore, has superstition fixed a place for 
purification, through which it is obligatory on a Hindoo 
to pass on his arrival at Allahabad. The purification 
falls little short of an ordeal. You have first to submit 
yourself to the application of the razor from the top of 
the head to the toes of the feet — the eyebrows and eye- 
lashes even not forming exceptions ; and for every hair 
thus thrown oW, you are promised * a million of years' 
residence in heaven.' Few rites are more absurd in the 
history of superstition, and it is unaccountable why no 
other has been preferred to this shocking operation — 
when hairs have their so great importance in physiology, 
and their value in the esteem of beauty. Milton has 
adorned his Adam with * hyacinthine locks ' and Eve 
with * dishevelled tresses.' The ' Rape of the Lock ' 
sets forth the inestimable value of a lady's ringlet. Long 
beards gave name to a nation — the Lombards. A Sikh 
is never so much ofiended as when you touch him by 
the beard — the great facial characteristic of manhood, 
never allowed by him to be profaned by the razor. Ask 
a doctor, and he will say he has known women in a 



304 Travels of a Hindoo. 

high delirium refuse at the sacrifice of their lives to part 

with their hair, given them ' to draw hearts after them 

tangled in amorous nets.' But squatting in little booths 

erected upon the edge of the waters, and mumbling tbeir 

prayers like the gibberish inflicted in swearing a jury, 

do the Pandas of Allahabad contrive to sheep-shear their 

pilgrims without distinction of sex, age, or rank. The 

male pilgrim strips himself almost naked, and sits to 

pass through the hands of the barber. There were some 

half dozen men whom we saw to undergo the process of 

hideous disfigurement. The fellows looked, sans tbeir 

cyo-brows, like idiots past all hope, and unrecognizable 

even by their own mothers. Certainly, the ceremony 

is ' more honoured in the breach than in the observance.' 

In the Hindoo calendar, this month of October is 

especially sacred for ablution. If it were possible to 

take in a pliotograph of the Ganges from the Himalayas 

to tlio sea, — how its banks would present an endless 

succession of ghauts, all crowded with men and women 

some dipping, others sipping, and the rest worsliippino", 

in every imaginable form of devotion. But the especial 

great tnola licro is held every year on the full moon in 

tlaniuiry — Maghai Prayagaiy as the common Hindoo 

saying goes. The holy fair lasts then about two months 

and attracts people from far and near. The wliole space 

that is seen to extend from the extreme point of the 

junction to the ]\[ahratta Bund, is then covered witb 

touts and temporary shops. The place is then tlironi>ed 

by devotees, niondicants, merclumts, and sigbt-seers f 

all castes and professions. But since the mutinv " 



Allahahady — the Priesthood. 305 

which, the high-caste Brahmins of Hindoostan made a 
last effort to revive their ancient hierarchy, this gather- 
ing of men has been disallowed to take place under the 
immediate ramparts of the fort. The priesthood at Alla- 
habad formerly numbered nearly fifteen hundred fami- 
lies. In their nimierical greatness, and impatience 
under the restraints imposed upon their greed, many of 
them presumed to take advantage of the rebellion. But 
by bidding defiance to the authority of their sovereign, 
they only placed themselves from the frying-pan into 
the fire. Those who had too anxiously desired to get 
quit of the Sahibs, whose presence hampered the free 
exercise of their rapacity, had to save their necks by 
breaking up and dispersing themselves — and who are 
now begging their bread in obscure towns, and hiding 
their h^ads under huts in the jungles. Their difilculty 
has become the pilgrim^s opportunity. 

After Benares, everything looks poor and paltry at 
Allahabad, and justifies its nickname of Fakeerabad. 
But when first impressions give way, the place is re- 
garded with a better feeling. More sight-seeing really 
deserving of the name is enjoyed here than at the great 
ecclesiastical metropolis of India. There, things are 
seen only through the camera-obscura of religion. Here, 
are objects to gratify a rational mind. Allahabad is a 
large and straggling station. The houses are few and 
scattered over a considerable space. The town princi- 
pally extends along the Jumna ; but Daragunge on the 
Ganges in a populous quarter. The roads are broad, 

and shaded at intervals with fine old trees. 
VOL. I. 20 



S^^ TraveU of a Hindoo. 

Ajoodliya and Allatabad were the first chiefs founded 
by the ArraiL conquerors in the pLiin* of Indin.- To 
Pururavu, modem statesmen must concede the credit of 
forestalling them in the choice of tbis well-defended and 
central spot for the seat of GoTemment. Forty centu- 
ries have eSiced every trace of the scenes in whicli that 
monarch loved to indulge with his Urvasi — and of the 
city in which reigned the good kings of old !XaIiusa, 
Yayati, Puru, Dushyanta, and Bharat. In a place of 
such great antiquity and renown as this, it is a pity that 
no vestiges should exist to tell the tale of its former ages 
— that there should be no Hindix> monuments to give 
notions of ancient Hindoo history. 

m 

2^0 fiict connected with the name of Allahabad is so 
interesting, and at the same time so Kttle known, as that 
of its having once been a Republican Slate in the heart 
of ancient India. To trace the royal Uneage of Buddha, 
his biographers review, one by one, the various dvnasties 
of Hindoo Princes, and take exception to the house cf 
Pandoo, for its illegitimate origin. The line of the 
Benares EajaLs is dismissed for one reason — the line of 
the Kanouge Rajahs for another. The instance of Al- 
lahabad is rejected on the score of its having* been a 
Eepublic, lq which the people obeyed no Rajah. It would 
make an interesting chapter \ji the histcry of i^ur nation, 
if research can elicit further matter alout this ancient 
Hindoo state. 

The name of Prayag must have been adopted in an 
age when superstition attached a peculiar sane tit v to the 
spjt. It was in use when Hwen Thsang came in the 



The River Seraswattee. — The Fort, 307 

seventh century. The Hindoo legends state the place 
to form a Trivem, or the meeting of three waters. One 
sees the Ganges and Jumna to form a magnificent con- 
fluence. But the third stream, Seraswattee, is in vain 
looked for with all the straining a man can give to his 
eyes. They say, she was coming down the country, but 
encountering on the way with hideous demons making 
a frightful noise, she disappeared among the sands on 
the north-west of Delhi. Travelling thence slowly and 
incognita beneath the earth, she at length met with 
Gunga and Jumoona at Allahabad. Tears trickled down 
her cheeks as she related the story of her misfortunes, . 
and she had been too much aflFrighted to assume again 
her visible form. This is but a mystified allusion to 
the swallowing up of the river Seraswattee (Caggar) by 
a violent earthquake. The frightful noises are those 
which accompany the natural phenomenon of an agita- 
tion of the earth. The trickling tears refer, perhaps, to 
the percolating water, which oozes through the walls of 
a subterranean temple at the Prayag. 

In Allahabad, the most conspicuous object of interest 
is the fort, which towers up with a massive face of rich 
red solid masonry from the waters of the Ganges and 
Jumna. The fort has the same best situation in all the 
town, that the town has in all India. Originally Hin- 
doo-built, there is no knowing the age of this citadel. 
No doubt, it must have been an important stronghold, 
whicli has witnessed the rise and fall of many an ancient 
Hindoo prince, — who should not be supposed to have 
carried on only a cat- and-dog warfare, or fought battles 



3o8 Travels of a Hindoo, 



like the frogs and mice of Homer. There is unimpeach- 
able evidence of their having understood war, and all 
its manoDuvres, sieges, and blockades, as known in their 
age. Their valour is attested by the Greeks to have 
been superior to that of any other Asiatic nation. Their 
armies were composed of the sextuple division of horse, 
foot, chariots, elephants, commissariat, and navy. In 
the art of fortification they were not less proficient. 
It was Menu's solemn advice to every Rajah, ' to build 
a strong fort with turrets and battlements in the place 
of his residence, and to protect it with a deep moat on 
all sides.^ The effect of this authoritative dictum is well 
seen in the numerous hill- forts and others, which bristle 
yet in many parts of our peninsula. Judging from the 
remains of fortified works elsewhere, the ancient Hindoo 
fort of Allahabad may safely be presumed to have been 
a noble and impregnable stronghold, which was well 
fitted to stand against all catapults and battering-rams, 
but not against artillery ; against all archery, but not 
against Armstrongs ; against flotillas of boats and gal- 
leys dropping down the Jumna or . Ganges, but not 
against steamers or floating wooden towers. Leaving 
in abeyance the question of superiority and inferiority 
between the father and the son, between the predecessor 
and Jhe successor, between the forerunner and the out- 
runner, — there is no denying, that the Hindoo prince, 
whoever he may have been, who first fixed upon the 
site, and started the idea, and chalked out the eircum- 
vallation of this fortress, is entitled to the credit of 
ha\dng raised that key-stone of the empire, which at a 



The Fort dismantled, — rebuilt, 309 

distant day served to decide the fate of the English in 
India. 

Time, neglect, and the ravages of war had disman- 
tled the Hindoo fort, by laying prostrate on the ground 
its towers and battlements in heaps of ruins. Only 
some bare walls stood weathering out the elements. 
The natural advantages of the spot and the hoary ruins 
attracted the observant eye of Akber. To guard his 
empire on the west he built the fort of Attock. To 
guard his empire on the east he , rebuilt the fort of 
Allahabad. The massive walls raised by Hindoo hands, 
which yet stood their ground, were included in the new 
buildings. But improvements which had become neces- 
sary by a progress in the art of fortification, were intro- 
duced to meet the wants of the age. To the strength 
of high towers and ramparts ' garnished with Saracenic 
loop-holes, and embrasures, and peep-holes,' was added 
the beauty of splendid portals and palatial halls, to 
make the fort worthy of the greatest of all the Mahom- 
edan rulers of India. Thus rebuilt and resuscitated, the 
fort once more resumed its importance in the land — and 
the name of Allahabad was conferred upon the city. 
The Hindoos are not wanting to ascribe a secret which 
influenced Akber in all these proceedings. They held 
him to have been a Hindoo in a former birth — that he 
enclosed in his body the soul of a devout Brahmin, who 
had in a past age borne the name of Mucunda, and had 
taken a fancy to become the emperor of India — not at all 
a preposterous wish for a Brahmin of old, but which 
would in our age have proscribed him either to a mad- 



310 Travels of a Hindoo. 

house, or chains, or transportation beyond the seas. 
To attain the great object of his ambition, Mucunda had 
besought the intercession of the gods. The gods had 
declared to him, that unless he first died and was bom 
again, it could not become practicable for him to obtain 
the emperorship. Nothing daunted, the ambitious 
Brahmin agreed to go through the penance of a trans- 
migration, on condition of remembering his antecedents 
ID the next generation. This again was so extravagant 
a request as to have been beyond the power of the gods 
to grant. He had, therefore, been directed to engrave 
upon a brass-plate the events he particularly wished to 
remember, and then to bury the plate in a spot which, 
he was promised to be able to make out in his future 
life. Mucunda duly carried out the injunctions of the 
gods by going over to Prayag, burying the plate, and 
then burning himself to death. It pleased the gods to 
have him doomed to the probation of a short transmi- 
gration. In nine months after his death, he was per- 
mitted to generate in the womb of Sultana Hamida 
Banu, and to take his birth at Amercote in the charac- 
ter of Akber. That emperor had not been many years 
upon his throne, before he went over to Allahabad, and 
easily discovering the spot, dug up the brass-plate as 
well as the tongs, gourd, and deer-skin of his former 
anchorite existence. Indeed, there were ostensible 
grounds for the Hindoos to claim Akber as a prince of 
their race, when that emperor had a Hindoo wife — the 
princess Jodh Baie; had a Hindoo daughter-in-law — 
the Marwaree wife of Jehangeer ; — had a Hindoo general 



The Emperor Akher, — The Fort modernized, 311 

— the Rajah Mann Sing ; had a Hindoo financier — the 
Rajah Toder Mull ; had a Hindoo favourite — the Rajah 
Beerbul ; had a Hindoo songster — Tansen : when he 
had many other Hindoo officers and Hindoo pundits 
always about him, when much in his court savoured of 
the Hindoo, and when he had in a manner Hindooized 
himself bv his ardent devotedness to the cause of Hindoo 
welfare. 

From the Hindoo to the Mahomedan — from the 
Mahomedan to the English, the fort has imdergone a 
successive modernization. In its Mogul style, it typified 
a heavily- accoutred and unwieldy Mogul soldier. In 
its present state, it appears capped and buttoned up in 
a tight English uniform. If the castle now has a less 
imposing appearance, it has certainly gained in sub- 
stantial strength from a more scientific plan of defence. 
The lofty towers of Mogul engineering 'have been 
pruned into bastions and ravelins on Vauban's system.' 
The high solid ramparts of stone have been topped with 
turf parapets. Then there is a ' fine broad glacis, with 
a deep ditch, draw-bridges, portcullis, and all the mate- 
rial appearances of a great fortress.' Nature and art so 
fortify this renowned citadel, that standing on a point 
enclosed by the barriers of two magnificent rivers, it 
bids defiance to every Native Power in India, and re- 
quires for its reduction a regular siege, according to 
European tactics. To a Bengalee, with his completely 
anti-military head and habits, the fort appears 

* A mighty maze, but not without a plan.' 



312 Travels of a Hindoo, 

The importance of the fort of Allahabad was never 
80 apparent as in the days of the Sepoy rebellion. In 
an early stage of that rebellion, Sir Henry Lawrence 
had telegraphed ' to keep Allahabad safe/ Sir James 
Outram * wrote the most pressing and the most mas- 
terly state-paper respecting the paramount necessity of 
securing Allahabad/ and eventually it proved the ark 
of refuge to the English. One by one, all over Hin- 
doostan, every cantonment had been burned, every gar- 
rison massacred, every jail let open, and every treasury 
plundered. Of that mighty Anglo-Indian Power, which 
held the heir of the house of Timoor imder pension, 
which had overturned the thrones of Hyder and Run- 
jeet, sold the state-jewels of Nagpore by public auction, 
exiled the king of Lucknow to a swamp on the Hooghly, 
sent an army to set up a king at Cabul, and equipped a 
fleet to chastise his Celestial Majesty, everything had 
suddenly collapsed. Throughout all Upper India, 
Allahabad remained the only spot for a footing. There, 
on the promontory in which the Doab has terminated, 
and behind the bulwarks round which break the foam 
of the Ganges and Jumna, hunted to the last asylum, 
the last strangers had turned desperately at bay. 
Though the country before them was like a raging sea 
upheaving with the waves of rebellion, and the country 
behind presented the same tempestuous scene, — though 
the City of Refuge floated like a tossing ship that ex- 
pected every moment to founder in the storm, the feeble 
garrison of invaUds, and aged drummers, and a miscel- 
laneous party, resolutely stood their mile and a half of 



Allahahady — a Maidan, — the Patalpooree. 313 

ground. The eyes of all India had been turned upon 
the little but heroic band, playing at high stakes. 
Fighting against tropical heat, hunger, cannon, and 
enormous odds, the handful of men well sustained the 
hot debate, — till detachment after detachment, and 
brigade after brigade, swelled their numbers once more 
to subdue Hindoostan beneath the English yoke. 

Facing the fort is a fine little maidan which separ- 
ates it fromj the town. The entrance, lying through a 
magnificent portal, is the noblest that Bishop Heber 
ever witnessed for a place of arms. By itself, the gate- 
way with its high arcades and galleries is not a con- 
temptible post of strength. The sentinel moving beneath 
the archway, challenges all those imder a dark skin who 
approach the draw-bridge without a passport. Inside 
the fort, the several barracks, the stores of artillery, the 
groups of soldiers at places, and other martial sights 
and sounds, give to it a thorough martial character. 
Just at the angle of the two rivers stands the great 
imperial hall of Akber, 272 feet long, which has been 
fitted up into a magnificent armoury. They show in 
this hall the traces of ancient Hindoo masonry. The 
Jumna rolls immediately below the buildings, and on 
it opens a small wicket, through which there is a little 
staircase of stone descending to the waters. The Mogul 
ladies formerly residing here used this as their bathing- 
ghaut. 

The Patalpooree — a remarkable place, most probably 
once above-groimd, but on which two united rivers have 
deposited their silt and formed a soil. We stood where 



314 Travels of a Hindoo, 

* the earth oped her ponderous and marble jaws/ — and 
saw the steps leading to a yawning cave. But beyond, 
a little way, the passage was blocked up by the stowage 
of coals. There is a prohibition now to admit pilgrims 
to see this cave in the fort, and it is being conveniently 
used as a warehouse. Fifteen years ago, some of our 
relatives visited this interesting cave. They had to 
grope their way through a very dark passage helped by 
the light of a feeble choragh. The confined air emitted 
a noisome smell. The saturated earth cooled their 
ardour by a chilling damp. The cave led them to a 
spacious square temple, about seven feet high, the roof 
of which is supported by thick walls and ranges of pil- 
lars. In its middle is a large lingam of Shiva, over 
which water is poured by the pilgrims. Surrounding 
this presiding deity, are other gods and goddesses of the 
Hindoo Pantheon. Towards the left, is seen a dead 
forked tree, which, with its withered trunk, has stood 
there for several hundred years. This is the stump of 
an Achhuyhut or immortal banyan — said to retain still 
its sap and vitality. But Tieffenthaler saw it leafless in 
his time, a century ago. This tree is also carefully 
watered by the pilgrims. Near it in the wall is an 
aperture, through which the percolating stream of the 
Seraswattee is shown to exude its waters. There is also 
another opening towards the confluence, and pilgrims 
in former times, choosing to explore this passage, often 
unawares or purposely found themselves in a watery 
grave.* 

♦ * Some of the victims of superstition annually drown themselves 



Cave-Temples, — Sacred Trees, 315 

If the Patalpooree is to be at all taken for a cave- 
temple, then it should rather be attributed to the Budd- 
hists than to the Brahmins. It was the Buddhists who 
had a genius for cave-temples, left by them in many- 
parts of India, and to whom they had become a neces- 
sity for pursuing their faith without molestation. The 
banyan tree — which is sacred to them and not to the 
Brahmins — greatly favours our supposition. Indeed, 
trees have from an early antiquity been held sacred in 
eastern systems of theology. The Hebrews had their 
Tree of Life, the Zoroastrians their Soma, and the Ved- 
ists their Soma, But it was not imtil the Buddhists 
had invested the banyan tree with a sacred character 
that veneration for trees came into sectarian fashion in 
India, and the Bel was dedicated to Shiva, and the 
Toolsee to Krishna. The temple must have fallen into 
the hands of the Shivites, like EUora and Elephanta, 
to account for its having been turned into a shrine of 
their god. By no means is religious hostility so much 
gratified as by appropriating and converting the tem- 
ple of an enemy into a shrine for the victorious — which 
is verily the trampling out of one sect by another. But 

at the junction of the streams ; and this being the most acceptable of 
all offerings, it is performed with much solemnity. The rapidity with 
which the victim sinks is regarded as a token of his favourable ac- 
ceptance by the god of the river. To secure the good inclinations of 
the deity, they carry out the devoted person to the middle of the 
stream, after having fastened pots of earth to his feet. The surroimd- 
ing multitude on the banks are devoutly contemplating the ceremony, 
and applauding the constancy of the victim, who, animated by their 
admiration, and the strength of his own faith, keeps a steady and 
resolute countenance, till he arrives at the spot, when he springs from 
the boat and is instantly swallowed up, amidst universal acclamation.' 
— Tennanfs Indian Recreation, 



316 Travels of a Hindoo, 

all this ingenious speculation falls to the ground, by 
taking into consideration the unfitness of a small point 
of land jutting out into the rivers, for anything like 
works of excavation. Physically, it does not seem to 
be well adapted for such undertakings. The banyan 
tree also could not have lived and grown excluded from 
all sunshine and air. In all probability, the temple 
must have once stood on the surface of the land, and 
lain neglected for ages on the conquest of the Mussul- 
mans, during which the Ganges and Jumna depositing 
their sediments over it, formed a layer of soil. To 
something like an accident it must have owed its dis- 
covery — since which it began to be regarded and used 
as a cave-temple. Now that it has been again closed 
up, it may remain so till it happens to turn open to the 
spades of a distant generation, like the vestiges of those 
savages whose rude stone instruments are found im- 
bedded with the remains of antediluvian animals, or 
buried deep under peat bogs forming the remains of 
primeval forests.* 

* Our concluding remarks are superfluous, as the kindness of a 
tolerant Government has again let open the temple to the visit of pil- 
grims. Not till the above had appeared in print, had we met with a 
copy of General Cunningham's Archajological Report, to find our sur- 
mises confirmed therein. It is stated by him, that, according to Hwen 
Thsang, * Allahabad was situated at the confluence of the two rivers, 
but to the west of a large sandy plain. In the midst of the city there 
was a Brahminical temple, to which the presentation of a single piece 
of money procured as much merit as that of one thousand pieces else- 
where. Before the principal room of the temple there was a large tree 
with wide-spreading branches, which was said to be the dwelling of an 
anthropophagous demon. The tree was surrounded with human bones, 
the remains of pilgrims who had sacrificed their lives before the tem- 
ple, — a custom which had been observed from time immemorial. I 
think there can be little doubt that the. famous tree here described by 



Bheema^s Gada or Lat. 317 

The greatest of all curiosities in the fort is Bheema's 
Gada or Lat — the pillar of the Indian Hercules. Few 
objects met by the tourist in Hindoostan have the same 
intrinsic value that is possessed by the monolith, which 
rises a beautiful shaft thirty-five feet high from the 
ground, in the centre of the green sward facing the 
Ellenborough barracks. The cylindrical column of 
black granite, slightly tapering towards the top, has 
stood from a remote period, imafiected by fire or flood, 
and unhurt by the ravages of war. Covering its sur- 

the Chinese pilgrim is the well-known AksTiay Bat^ or " shadowless 
banyan tree," which is still an object of worship at Allahabad. This 
tree is now situated under-ground at one side of a pillared court, which 
would appear to. have been open formerly, and which is, I believe, the 
remains of the temple described by Hwen Thsang. Originally both 
tree and temple must have been on the natural ground-level, but from 
the constant accumulation of rubbish they have been gradually earthed 
up until the whole of the lower portion of the temple has disappeared 
under-ground. The upper portion has long ago been removed, and the 
only access to the AksJuiy Bat now available is by a flight of steps 
which leads down to a square pillared court-yard. This court has 
apparently once been open to the sky, but it is now closed in to secure 
darkness and mystery for the holy Fig tree. The AksMy Bat is next 
mentioned by Abu Rihan as the " tree of Prag " in the time of Mahmood 
of Ghizni. In the seventh century a great sandy plain, two miles in 
circuit, lay between the city and the confluence of the rivers, and as 
the tree was in the midst of the city, it must have been at least one 
mile from the confluence. But nine centuries later, in the beginning 
of Akber's reign, Abdul Kadir speaks of the " tree from which people 
cast themselves into the rivers." From this statement, I infer that, 
during the long period that intervened between the time of Hwen 
Thsang and that of Akber, the two rivers had gradually carried away 
the whole of the great sandy plain, and had so far encroached upon 
the city as to place the holy tree on the very brink of the water. As 
the old city of Prayag has totally disappeared, we can scarcely expect 
to find any traces of the various Buddhist monuments which were 
seen and described by the Chinese pilgrim in the seventh century. 
Indeed, from their position to the south-west of the city, it seems very 
probable that they may have been washed away by the Jumna even 
before the final abandonment of the city, as the course of that river 
for three miles above the confluence has been due west and east for 
many centuries past.' 



318 Travels of a Hindoo. 

face are inscriptions, the character of which has long 
become obsolete, and mocked the efforts of spectators 
to interpret their meaning. Generation after genera- 
tion in successive ages have looked and marvelled at it, 
as an incomprehensible mystery. In the entire silence 
of history and tradition about it, in ignorance of its 
real origin and object, forgotten in the lapse of time, 
native popular opinion could scarcely have done better 
than identified it with the club of the heroic Bheenia. 
But the time at length came, when the riddle which 
had puzzled the wits of many an (Edipus was solved, — 
when the mystery veiled in disused Pali was expounded 
to the worid, — and when the piUar, revealed in all its 
intents and purposes, stood as a great landmark in the 
void of Tnclian history, separating the age of truth fix)in 
that of fable and legend. 

In the times when the art of printing was unknown, 
and mankind knew not to speak through the press, 
when placards and printed notifications had yet a long 
time before them to come into fashion, the ancient 
Buddhist kings of India employed durable rocks and 
marble fixtures for proclaiming their ukases and gazet- 
ting their edicts. The pillar in question is no more 
than one of these ancient fixtures, planted, with manv 
others in different parts of India, upwards of two thou- 
sand years ago, by Asoca, to serve as a royal manifesto 
for prohibiting cruelty against animals, and calling 
upon the public of ancient India for the erection of 
hospitals and other charitable institutions throughout 
his empire. It was next made use of by Samudra Gup- 



Pillar of the Indian Hercules. 319 

ta, about the second century of the Christian era, for 
the record of his extensive sovereignty over the various 
nations of India from Nepal to the Deccan, and from 
Guzerat to Assam. The principal inscriptions are in 
Pali, the language of ancient Maghada, and in the 
Gupta character. In all, there are four of them, in- 
cluding the Persian. This last one is by Jehangeer, 
who has interpolated his name and lineage through 
the middle of the most ancient of the three inscriptions 
— thereby making * confusion worse confounded,' and 
exciting your 

* Wonder how the devil he got in there.' 

The column is obeliskal, and its top ornamented with 
carvings of the lotus or tulip. This similarity to the 
customs of the Egyptians is not accidental, but the re- 
sult of a familiar intercourse with those people. All 
Asoca's columns appear to be of the same height — forty- 
two feet and seven inches, inclusive of the part under- 
ground. The one at Benares and the one at Allahabad 
measure exactly the same altitude. The columns were 
erected only in large, populous, and opulent cities. 
Though the capital of the Lunar Princes had been re- 
moved to Hastinapoor, and though Menu or the Maha- 
barat makes no allusion to the name of Allahabad, still 
its importance in the third century before Christ is 
established beyond a doubt by this column of Asoca. 
Up to this day, male and female Hindoo pilgrims re- 
turning from the north-west, speak of this column as 
the remarkable Gada of Bhcema, though it is now a 



320 Travels of a Hindoo. 

quarter of a centurj^ since its meaning has been ex- 
plained to the world by the man, to whose memory has 
been erected the ghaut from which Governors- General 
quit the shores of India. 

In the Mogul times, Allahabad was the principality 
of the Mogul heir-apparent. Here Jehangeer exercised 
his Shazadaship — chiefly spending his time in the com- 
pany of his young Marwaree wife, the sister of Kajah 
Maun. But before long, the Rajputnee princess put an 
end to her life by swallowing poison — disgusted as much 
to see her husband and son live upon terms of the eat 
and dog, as probably to drag on a life made intolerable 
by the nauseating breath of an onion-and- garlic-eating 
Mahomedan husband — a breath not less repugnant 
to a Hindoo woman than is the effluvium of cigars to 
an English woman.* It cost the English very little 
trouble to get possession of Allahabad. There was one 
Nujeef Khan, who was well acquainted with the fort- 
ress, and who pointed out the weakest part. It was 
speedily breached, and the garrison made no delay to 
evacuate the place. 

Great numbers of Bengalees abound in Allahabad, 
some six thousand. Their errands are various — health, 
wealth, and pilgrimage. Our doctor had a friend here 
with whom we were to put up for the night. In search- 

* Sleman relates Hhat Noor Jehan had invited the mother of 
Khusero to look with her down a well in the court-yard of her apart- 
ments by moonlight ; and as she did so, she threw her in. As soon as 
she saw tluvt she had ceased to stniggle she gave the alarm, and pre- 
tend(;d that she had fallen in by accident.' This must refer to another 
rival whom Noor Jehan wanted to remove, and not to Khusero's 
mother. 



Tales of the Mutiny. 321 

ing for his house was best disclosed to us the straggling 
character of the city. To the question where such a one 
lived, the reply was doh coss ; where the Kydgunge, doh 
coss ; where the Colonelgunge, the Chowk, the Railway 
station, the invariable reply was doh coss. Coming un- 
expectedly in a battalion upon our host, it did not 
inconvenience him in the least to give us a hearty wel- 
come. In the true spirit of a fast money-making and 

money-expending Kayust, Baboo N is accustomed 

to keep an open house and table for all his friends pass- 
ing on, and from, a tour to the Upper Provinces. He 
gave us lots of good eating and drinking, and comfort- 
able housing in an upper-room. The night was spent 
up to a late hour in hearing tales of the mutiny, — which 
is, and long shall be, the topic in every man's mouth all 
over the land. They speak of it as a fearful epoch of 
unexampled atrocities on the one side, — and of an un- 
paralleled retaliation on the other. There were the 
Sepoys with the blood of murdered officers on their 
heads, and budmashes and bullies, and cut-throats and 
cut-purses, all acknowledging a fraternal tie, and hold- 
ing a bloody carnival. But it was impossible that 
twenty uncongenial parties, divided by quarrels about 
caste, quarrels about religion, quarrels about power, and 
quarrels about plunder, could long act together in an 
undisturbed concert. Soon as batch after batch of 
Englishmen arrived to re-establish the Saxon rule, they 
were driven like chaff before the wind. Then followed 
a dreadful sequel — the horror of horrors. The Martial 

Law was an outlandish demon, the like of which had 
VOL. I. 21 



322 Travels of a Hindoo, 

not been dreamt of in Oriental demonology. Kampant 
and ubiquitous, it stalked over the land devouring hun- 
dreds of victims at a meal, and surpassed in devastation 
the Hakhasi or female cannibal of Hindoo fables. It 
mattered little whom the red-coats killed — the innocent 
and the guilty, the loyal and the disloyal, the well- 
wisher and the traitor, were confounded in one promis- 
cuous vengeance. To ^ bag the nigger,' had become a 
favourite phrase of the military sportsmen of that day. 
^ Pea-fowls, partridges, and Pandies rose together, but 
the latter gave the best sport. Lancers ran a tilt at a 
wretch who had taken to the open from his covert.' In 
those bloody assizes, the bench, bar, and jury were 
none of them in a bland humour, but were bent on pay- 
ing off scores by rudely administering justice with the 
rifle, sword, and halter — making up for one life by 
twenty. * The first spring of the British Lion was 
terrible, its claws were indiscriminating.' 

There came in a friend, who knew about the mu- 
tiny at Allahabad, from its beginning to the end. He 
then lived with his family at Daragunge, carrying on 
business in country produce. There were other Ben- 
galees living about him, and forming a clique. They 
had been placed, as it were, upon a barrel of gunpowder 
for many days. The firing in the cantonments at 
length told them of the explosion which everybody had 
expected to burst. It was a signal to the budmaahea 
to rise at once in all quarters. The Bengalees cowered 
in fear, and awaited within closed doors to have their 
throats cut. The women raised a dolorous cry at the 



The Mutiny at Allahabad. 323 

near prospect of death. From massacring their officers, 
and plundering the treasury, and letting open the jail- 
birds, the Sepoys spread through the town to loot the 
inhabitants. Our friend, as well as his other neigh- 
bours, were soon eased of all their valuables, but were 
spared their lives on promise of allegiance to their 
government. The first shock over, the Bengalees opened 
a communication with those in the fort for help. But 
what help could be afforded by those who were in need 
of help themselves? They then proceeded to take 
measures of defence against the budmashes, and organ- 
ized a body of forces with the aid of a wealthy Hindoo- 
stanee, who resided in their quarter. The Sepoys made 
many efibrts to take the fort, but all in vain. During 
one whole week after the struggle had begun in earnest, 
on arrival of the first instalment of troops, people did 
not know where to lay their heads from the unremitting 
hail of shot and shell showered from the fort on the 
streets and bazars of the city. It might be exag- 
gerated to have * darkened the sun,' — though the 
Pandies were not exactly the men to 'fight in the 
shade. ^ Familiarity with danger gradually lessened its 
terrors — the very women grew bold in their despera- 
tion. Our friend remarked, that at last he got himself 
so unconcerned as to walk in an open verandah of his 
house, while red-hot balls passed overhead through the 
air. Daragunge had especially been a turbulent quar- 
ter, and it had been ordered to be burnt down. The 
Bengalees went on this in a body, with the most melan- 
choly and woe-begone faces, to represent their fate. 



3^4 Travels of a Hindoo. 

But they were told that an order could not be re-called. 
By much importunate solicitation, they prevailed on 
the officers to see that order fulfilled only in the confla- 
gration of the outskirt huts, where Hved those budtnash 
manjees who had broken the bridge of boats on Neill's 
approach. One night our friend had to drop down 
through a window of his house, to save a coolie from 
the hands of a soldier on picquet. The coolie had been 
moving about in the dark without answering to the 
challenge of the man on duty. The soldier at last 
pointed his gun at the stolid fellow, when our friend, 
jmnping out, went up to the man to explain that the 
coolie did not understand his challenge, and was no 
hudmash. 

One's blood still nms cold to remember the soul- 
harrowing and blood-freezing scenes that were wit- 
nessed in those days. There were those who had 
especial reasons to have been anxious to show their 
rare qualification in administering drumhead justice. 
Scouring through the town and suburbs, they caught 
all on whom they could lay their hands — porter or 
pedlar — shopkeeper or artisan, and hurrying them on 
through a mock-trial, made them dangle on the nearest 
tree. Near six thousand beings had been thus sum- 
marily disposed ofi" and launched into eternity. Their 
corpses hanging by twos and threes from branch and 
sig^-post all over the town, speedily contributed to 
frighten down the country' into submission and tran- 
quillity. For three months did eight dead-carts daily 
go their rounds from sunrise to simset, to take down 



Tales of the Mutiny. 325 

the corpses which hung at the cross-roads and market- 
places, poisoning the air of the city, and to throw their 
loathsome burdens into the Ganges. 

Others, whose indignation had a more practical 
turn, sought to make capital out of those troublous times. 
The martial law was a terrible Gorgon in their hands 
to turn men into stone. The wealthy and timid were 
threatened to be criminated, and they had to buy up 
their lives as they best could under the circumstances. 

Not a few Bengalees had then arrived under the 
disguise of Fakirs and Byragees, to seek refuge at Alla- 
habad. Many of them had got real splendid beards, to 
suit the characters they shammed. From all those who 
had then mourned that — 

Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day, 
When from Bengal Proper they bent their way — 

one noble instance stood out most conspicuous. Though 
a native from an obscure village on the Hooghly, and 
unused to the warlike mood, he held his position de- 
fiantly, organized forces, made saUies, planned attacks, 
burnt villages, wrote despatches to thank his subordin- 
ates, and made himself deserving to be remembered in 
history under the soubriquet of the * Fighting Moonsiff.' 
October 27th, — ^TJp early in the morning. Found 
the compound of our lodge crowded by a large gang of 
rustic Hindoostanee women, who were squatting in a 
long row, and indulging fully in their loquacity. They 
clean grain at the warehouse of our host, and receive a 
couple of annas a day per head for their labour. They 
were come for their previous day's pay, and were cla- 



3^6 Travels of a Hindoo. 

morous to get it, and go about their work. Our new 
faces made them hold their tongues for a moment, 
which it is female modesty to do. Though most of 
them appeared to have passed their middle age, they 
had all of them tall, healthy frames, with a coarse set 
of features. Those that were widows had no bell-metal 
armlets or bangles on their feet and arms. One 
creature in the company had a tolerably good cut of 
face, and was by no means unpleasant to look upon, 
with her pair of soft eyes. Their bodies were all tat- 
tooed over in fantastic figures. This operation is under- 
gone by them at the tender age of five or six, from time 
to time, on difierent parts of their body, when, in many 
instances, they have to be laid up under a most painful 
inflammation. It is an initiatory rite, without which 
food and water do not become acceptable from their 
hands. Contrary to our notions, they think the tat- 
tooed flowers and wreaths to ad'l a grace to their 
persons — or otherwise, females would have been the last 
to observe a custom that interfered with their beauty. 

The upward train from Allahabad starts at four in 
the afternoon, — so the whole day is left to us to spend it 
in exploring the town. In many parts it still has a 
desolate, poverty-stricken appearance, and consists of 
thatched huts, with a few brick-houses at intervals. 
The Buria-ghaut on the Jumna is a sacred spot. They 
say that Hama, with his wife and brother Luchmun, 
crossed here at this ghaut, on their way from Ajoodhya 
to go over to the land of their exile. He passed by 
this place to give a visit to his friend Goohuk Chandal. 



Railway Bridge over the Jumna, 327 

But it was a long time after Rama, that the Chimdail 
kings of Chunar made their appearance in India, and 
held Allahabad mider their sway. There is properly 
no ghaut with a flight of steps at the spot to do justice 
to the memory of Rama. The concourse of people, 
however, bathing there in this holy month presents a 
lively scene — ^with groups of Hindoostanee women per- 
forming their matin rites, and returning home in pro- 
cessions clothed in drapery of the gayest colours. The 
Rajah of Benares has a fine villa in the neighbourhood 
of this ghaut. 

Not far below the Duria-ghaut they were busy at 
the site of the intended Railway bridge over the Jumna. 
In two years, they have sunk about twenty shafts. The 
pits, more than forty feet deep, are awful. They lie 
side by side of each, and have extremely narrow brinks 
to walk from one to the other. Three or four lives 
have been lost in sinking the shafts, and it is difficult 
to get men for the work. The diver has to remain be- 
low for half the day. One man had just been taken 
up as we arrived. He was below forty feet of water 
for six hours together. But on taking off his water- 
proof coat, his body was found to have been untouched 
by a single drop of water — only the hands were drip- 
ping and shrivelled. The face also showed a little 
paleness on removal of the diving-helmet. But he 
came to himself again after a few minutes in the open 
air. The shafts have collected a little chur about them 
— and this is to be the foundation for a bridge to ride 
triumphantly across the Jumna. 



328 Travels of a Hindoo. 



The Jummah Musjeed, or the Mahomedan Cathedral, 
is a stately old building. The pork-eating Feringliee 
having desecrated it by his abode, it has ceased to be 
used as a place of worship by the sons of Islam. But 
not far from this mosque do the Hindoos worship a 
very image of the hog, under the name of Baraha, The 
boar personifies the second incarnation of Vishnu, who 
raised the earth on his tusks from the bottom of the 
ocean. * It were better to have no notion of God at 
all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him ' — ^than 
blaspheming him as a fish, a pig, and a tortoise. 

In Allahabad they show the sacred asrama or her- 
mitage of Bhradwaj Muni, a Hindoo sage of Vedic 
antiquity, and the great forefather of our present Moo- 
kerjee Brahmins. The spot is classic, and deserves a 
visit. To the coteers of our ancient Munis, where they 
lived in seclusion amidst their books and pupils, may 
be traced the etymon and origin of the modem Eu- 
ropean coteries. 

One spends a pleasant hour at Allahabad in visiting 
the Ghusero Bagh. The garden is a large quadrangle, 
enclosed by a high masonry wall, in as good an order 
now as when first reared. The entrance lies through 
a noble gateway, which is in half-Gothic form. Fit- 
ting the lofty arch are enormous doors, that turn upon 
pointed wooden pivots in lieu of hinges. It is now two 
centuries and a half since the planks first left the 
carpenter's hands. But the strength of the Indian 
teak has resisted wear and tear through all this time, 
without any mark of decay. The space within is laid 






Chusero Bagh. 329 



out in beautiful walks and flower-beds. The patches 
of turnip and caidiflower console foreigners in a strange 
land. The fruit-trees are various, and the groves of 
veteran mangoes magnificent. There is also a little 
labyrinth of evergreens to puzzle and amuse holiday- 
visitors. 

In the middle of the Bagh are three mausoleums — 
two over the Princes Chusero and Purvez, and a third 
over the Marwaree Begum of Jehangeer. The tombs 
are all on the model of a Mahomedan Tazia, The one 
belonging to the lady has a little peculiarity in dis- 
tinction of her sex. She reposes by the side of her un- 
happy son, as if tending him with her maternal cares 
even in eternity. But they do not allow her to have a 
quiet sleep — the upper floor of her tomb has been fitted 
up into a billiard-room, and the bones of the poor lady 
labour under a sore incubus. 

The ill-fated Chusero lies between his mother and 
brother, and has the grandest tomb among the group. 
His remains are interred in the vaulted chamber, round 
which spreads a square terrace forming the first stratum 
of the building. The small size of the sarcophagus con- 
firms the death of Chusero in an early age. The walls 
of the lofty octagon rising in the middle, are outwardly 
ornamented with many decorations. The interior is 
beautifully painted, in which some of the foliage and 
flowers still retain their dye. The dome on the top 
swells beautifully out into a faultless globe. In the 
opinion of Bishop Heber, these mausoleums ' completely 
give the lie to the notion common in England, which 



$^0 Travels of a Hindoo. 

regards all Eastern architecture as in bad taste and 
barbarous.' 

Adjoining the garden is a spacious serai, which gives 
a specimen of the Mogul public works. The rooms all 
round the square are still in good order to acconuncNlate 
travellers. But in the open square is held the noisy 
fish and vegetable market of the town. To the serai is 
attached a deep well. From the bottom to the top, its 
sides are built up with strong masonry. The part left 
open to go down to the waters, has a large flight of 
steps resembling a ghaut. This well has acquired a 
great notoriety from the Moulivie, who had set up the 
standard of Been at Allahabad, and who so prominently 
figured in the scenes of rebellion enacted in that city. 
To take in people, he used to spread a magic carpet 
covering the mouth of this well, and sitting thereon 
rosary in hand, attracted large multitudes to witness his 
miracle, and hear his pious harangues against Nazarene 
domination. The ignorant rabble wondered at the secret 
of his supernatural feat, and believing invincible the 
man who could resist gravitation, justified his treason 
and eagerly embraced his cause. 

Up in these provinces, the Shoe-question has all the 
grave political importance of the Slave-question in 
America — and the force of a statutory law in the Mo- 
fussal oflScialdom. Our lawyer had to attend a case 
before the mag^trate. He was forbid to enter the 
Court with his shoes on. On no account would the 
lawyer be unshod. On no account would the magistrate 
give up his punctilio. The lawyer remonstrated, the 



The ^Battle of the Shoes.' 331 

magistrate persisted. For full ten minutes the war of 
words went on, much to the amuBement of the bystand- 
ers; till at last the magistrate proposed a choice be- 
tween taking off the shoes and taking off the pugree — 
between bare feet and a bare head, the two opposite 
extremes for European and Oriental etiquette. The 
lawyer immediately doffed his pugree. The magistrate 
forthwith resumed his courtesy — and there was an end 
of the battle of the shoes. 

In the dispute about the site of Palibothra, the great 
French geographer, Mons. D'Anville, gave the palm to 
Allahabad. But there is in Strabo a very particular 
allusion to a grand causeway leading from PaKbothra 
into the interior of the country. Unless this causeway 
had been either over the Ganges or Jumna, — where is 
the river, channel, or any description of water whatso- 
ever, which could have necessitated the erection of that 
causeway ? 

Tieffenthaler saw this place ftdl of temples and idols 
in his time. But in all Allahabad there now rises only 
a single temple to break in upon the view. There is 
scarcely any activity of trade in this town, any bustle 
upon the river, any rumbling of coaches and carts in 
the streets, or any throng of merchants and porters on 
the thoroughfares. The population is scattered, and 
much too thin for a city of such magnitude. The houses 
.re poor, and the shops mean. The native community 
makes no stir in any of the important concerns of life — 
in religion, trade, education, politics, or pleasure, — every- 
thing languishes at AUahabad. But aU this ennui is 



332 Travels of a Hindoo. 



soon to be at an end. There is a question on the tapis 
to make Allahabad the seat of the North- Western Pre- 
sidency. Hereafter, the excellent geographical position, 
the strength of the natural boundaries, the fine climate, 
and the great resources of the neighbouring provinces, 
may point the place out for the seat of the Viceroy him- 
self. Two years ago, here was uttered the dirge over 
the fimeral of the late East India Company, — ^here was 
inaugurated the era of the Sovereignty of the Queen, 
with royal promises of pardon, forgiveness, justice, 
religious toleration, and non-annexation, — and here was 
Lord Canning installed as the first Viceroy of India. 

Once more to move on by rail to Cawnpore. The 
station at Allahabad is not half so large as that at How- 
rah. But it is very picturesque to look at the up- 
country train with its vari-coloured turbaned Hindoos- 
tanee passengers. They use here wood instead of coal, 
and the great evil of it is, that you are liable to catch 
fire from the sparks — sometimes pieces of red-hot char- 
coal — from the engine. 'The other day, as a detach- 
ment of Sikh soldiers were going up-country, one of 
them had his clothes set on fire by the embers. All his 
comrades were dressed in cotton-quilted tunics, with 
their pouches full of ammunition ; and in their alarm 
they adopted the notable device of pitching the man out 
of the window, in order to get rid of the danger to 
which they were exi)08ed.' 

There now lay before us the prospect of the extensive, 
beautiful, and historic valley of the Doab — the u±nterved 
of the ancient Hindoos. From the narrow point in 



The Falley of the Doab. 333 

which it has terminated, the valley broadens as it 
stretches away towards the west, embracing a greater 
and greater area between the Ganges and Jumna, that 
form the highways of nature, — while the rail laid across 
between them forms the rival highway of man. The 
whole of its immense superficies forms a vast, populous, 
and busy hive, enriched by human industry, and embel- 
lished by human taste. On the map^ no country is so 
thickly dotted with great townships and cities, — and 
under the sun, no country makes up such a highly 
interesting prospect of green fields, orchards, and gar- 
dens, in a continuous succession. In this fair savanah 
man has had his abode from a remote antiquity, to reap 
rich harvests, and Kve amidst plenty. Here were the 
cities of the pre- Vedic Dasyas, Here rose the first cities 
of the Aryas, In the plains of the Doab, the Rajahs of 
Hastinapoor, of Indraprasthra, and of Kanouge, ex- 
hibited the highest power and splendour of Hindoo 
sovereignty. The rich districts watered by the Ganges 
and Jumna have always tempted the avarice of the 
foreign conqueror. To these regions did Alexander 
point as the utmost goal of his ambition. Here was 
the residence of the most famous Hindoo sages. From 
this birth-place of arts and civilization has wisdom 
travelled to the West. The Doab is the battle-ground 
of the Pandoo against the Kiiru — of the Ghiznivide and 
Ghorian against the Hindoo— of the Mogul against the 
Patan — of the Mahratta against the Mogul — and of the 
English against the Mahratta. Nowhere in India is 
the traveller so much interested as in this valley, — where 



334 Travels of a Hindoo. 



cities tliirty centuries old turn up in his path, — where 
many a spot is hallowed by tradition, and many a ruin 
is consecrated by history, — where abound curious re- 
mains of the genius and industry of a world which has 
long passed away, — where he visits monuments cele- 
brated to the farthest ends of the earth, — and where he 
treads over battle-fields which have changed the des- 
tinies of nations. Its Kving population, its agricultural 
prosperity, its seats of manufacture, its busy markets, 
its ancient wealth and refinement, are also objects of no 
common attraction and interest. 

Baber's 'jungles abounding with elephants' do not 
occur now-a-days in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Allahabad. Far from all such, the tract now bears the 
marks of a high cultivation and populousness. But 
the mutiny has left on the face of the country traces 
which the most careless observer cannot fail to discern 
many years hence. Resembling the Kghtning, it has 
left everything charred and burnt in its course. On 
either hand of the road, nothing but ruin meets the 
eye in its track. There are whole villages in ruins, 
without one human being. The walls of mud-huts 
stand thatchless and rain-beaten. The roads, untrod- 
den by any footsteps, are overgrown with weeds and 
brambles. Thick bushes hide these villages from the 
view. There is no stir — ^no sound of life in them — ^not 
even the hayings of a dog to break in upon the silence. 
The desolate habitations are he cheragh at night. By 
this road had Renaud advanced to open the way towards 
Cawnpore. He marched his column, fighting as oc- 



Berhampore, — Futtehpore. 335 

casion required, and tranquillizing the country by the 
very simple expedient of bui'ning all the villages in the 
line of march, and hanging everybody with a black 
face falling in his way. * In two days, forty- two men 
were hanged on the road-side, and a batch of twelve 
men were executed because their faces were turned the 
wrong way^ when they were met on the march.' — The 
possession of bits of telegraph by an individual in those 
days * came under the chapter of capital offences in the 
Criminal Code, as revised by Colonel Neil.' These ^ se- 
verities could not have been justified by the Cawnpore 
massacre, because they took place before that diabolical 
act.' Half a century of peace and good government had 
given to these regions a prosperity of which almost every 
sign has disappeared. The thick and thriving peasantry 
has become thinned by death and dispersion. No esti- 
mate can be formed of the value of property destroyed 
in that period of anarchy. It would take many years 
to repair the waste which is visible for many miles in 
succession. Here and there, the fields covered with 
crops told of the return of a few families to their plough 
and pursuits. 

Berhampore is a pretty station. The next one is 
Futtehpore, From its very name, its numerous mosques, 
serais, and tombs, this is at once known to be a Ma- 
homedan town, in which the Patans were very strong, 
before the arrival of the Moguls. By the aid of a clear 
moonlight, we could discern, a few steps from the 
road, the ruins of a large bungalow standing roofless 
with its bare white skeleton walls, to proclaim the 



33^ Travels of a Hindoo. 

ravages of the incendiary rebels. The good Bishop, who 
has been so often quoted in these pages, states, that 
* the road for some miles from Futtehpore lies over an 
open plain, as level as any part of India, and marked 
out by nature for the scene of a great battle which 
should decide the fate of the country.' He justly 
opined, where actually had been fought the battle of 
Kudjwa, in which, to quote the proverbial saying in 
Hindoostan — 

* Sfiijahjeet hazy^ apna haat hara.^ 

* Sujah having won the game, threw it up with his own hands.' 

In our own days, there has been fought the battle 
which first raised the hopes of a desponding nation, 
announced to Nana the speedy downfall of his power, 
and earned to Havelock a niche in the temple of the 
Indian CKo. 

October 28th — Coming with an exaggerated ideal, 
one is sure to be disappointed by the reality of Gaiin- 
pore. The station spreads over a considerable space, 
but much of it is open maidan on all sides. True, it is 
pleasantly situated on the Ganges, high up in Northern 
India. But the localty is an arid sandy plain, in which 
the glare, and dust, and the breath of the loo (simoom), 
have always given to it a bad notoriety. Cawnpore 
has no ancient architectural curiosities, no historic 
antecedents, — not even a name in the geography of the 
Hindoos. Baber does not speak of it, nor does the 
Ayeen Akbary allude to its existence. It is a town of 
Enghsh parentage — dating its origin from the time 



Cawnpore. 337 



when it became a watch-tower to awe down the royal 
Lucknowite. 

Started off on a walk ' to look at Cawnpore.' The 
busy quarter of trade is a lively scene of activity. Here, 
lie scattered huge swollen bales of cotton, — there, are 
piled high pyramids of grain. Here, comes in a vehicle 
to discharge its goods^ — there, goes out another creak- 
ing excruciatingly under the weight of its load. The 
jingling ekas pass trotting to and fro all the day long, 
and the tread of thousands of horses, camels, bullocks, 
and donkeys loosens every hour from the friable soil a 
quantity of dust, which rises into the air on the slight- 
est provocation, and floats in suffocating clouds over the 
station. 

The scene changes in the cantonments. The roads 
here are watered every morning and evening. The 
long avenues intercepting the sun are pleasing features 
in a dreary prospect. In no Indian town are the roads 
so broad, and so well ventilated. The open maidans 
very well answer the purpose of those squares which 
preserve the health of our metropolis. The tidy shops 
along the streets are hung with little sign-boards over 
the doors, or on poles in front of their entrance. In the 
gala-days of Cawnpore, the cantonments exhibited, mile 
after mile, a gay and fantastic succession of bungalows, 
barracks, bazars, arid gardens to the river. The river 
reflected the scene of a floating village, with every de- 
scription of vessel collected upon its surface. The now 

bare fields, then stretched with 'regular streets and 
VOL. I. 22 



33^ Travels of a Hinaoo. 

squares of canvas.' The promenades were gay with 
equipages and Kveries — * chockful of pretty women ! ' 
There were theatricals every week — ^balls, picnics, and 
dinners every evening. But those days are numbered 
* with the years beyond the flood/ — and a mournful 
gloom now hangs over the walks and scenes once so 
animated with life. 

Passing along a road towards the river, it was sad 
to see the desolate houses, some windowless, others 
roofless, of the late European residents. In the wrecks 
of gardens and flower-beds, 'roses contended in vain 
with choking weeds.' Near a dilapidated gateway, a 
sorry old Hindoostanee, beggared and bereaved by the 
mutiny, had set up a little brazen idol which was hon- 
oured with a pittance by natives to and from their bath 
in the Ganges along this road. 

To Shah Behari LaVs Ghaut. The picturesque group 
of temples, and a broad flight of steps from an elevation 
of 50 feet above the stream, with which that rich banker 
of Lucknow had adorned the banks at Cawnpore, are 
now a most melancholy heap of rubbish — in which, 
literally, not one stone has been left unturned upon 
another. The Hindoo temples sheltered the guns 
which the GwaKor Contingent had brought to play 
against the bridge of boats, and so Sir Colin thought 
proper to have them mined and blown up before his 
second march for Lucknow. The stout massive build- 
ings had made an obstinate resistance to gunpowder. 
The priests had interceded for the preservation of their 
shrines. But they were destroyed on account of mili- 



The Mutiny at Cawnpore, — Nana. 339 

tary considerations connected with the safety of the 
bridge. 

The Indian Mutiny may well be compared to one of 
those storms which, brewed by the Indian sun, is pecu- 
liar to the Indian latitudes, and which, rising in a little 
speck on the north-west, blew a terrific poKtical Nor- 
wester. Nowhere had that tempest spent so much of 
its fury as at Cawnpore. But it was to hope against 
hope on the part of Nana, to have resuscitated that 
empire of his forefathers, which, far from being re- 
gretted, was contemplated by men with dismay, and 
recalled to their minds devastated fields, smoking vil- 
lages, depopulated towns, paralyzed trade, and universal 
destitution and misery. He tried to play a game in 
which the redoubted Sevajee himself would have de- 
spaired of success. The * chance, and tumult, and con- 
fusion, and discord all embroiled ' in the poet's fictitious 
Pandemonium, found a parallel in the realities of his 
infernal council. In his panoply of brocades and mus- 
lins, it was in him the veriest freak of an Alnaschar to 
have shaken his fist in the face of doughty Englishmen. 
He had merely an opportunity to * strut and fret his 
hour upon the stage' — there was no sane man who could 
have beKeved him to be able to raise a goodly edifice 
out of chaos. 

They showed us the spot, in an open square, south 
of the canal, on which had been set up the green stand- 
ard of Islam. There was * Azeezun, the Demoiselle 
Theroigne of the revolt, on horseback, dressed in the 
uniform of her favoured regiment, armed with pistols, 



340 Travels of a Hindoo. 



and decorated with medals. There was, too, a priest of 
high consideration seated beneath the flag, rosary in 
hand, endeavouring by prayer and meditation to ascer- 
tain the propitious hour for an attack upon the strong- 
hold of the infidel.' 

But nobody could point to us the whereabouts of the 
well, into which the unhappy Miss Wheeler had flung 
herself, to cut short the days of her ignominy and 
misery. The youngest daughter of Sir Hugh was in 
her eighteenth year. She was roseate with that bloom, 
which had still been retained under the pelting of the 
storm. Loath * to throw away a pearl richer than all 
his tribe,' a young Mahomedan trooper had selected her 
for a prize, and borne her away to his home like * Pluto 
carrying off Proserpine.' To revenge the outrages which 
it is the lot of a woman to suffer under such circum- 
stances, she waited for the dead hour of midnight, when, 
gently getting up and walking with noiseless steps to 
where the intoxicated ruffian lay snoring in sleep, she 
took up the sword lying beside him, and one by one cut 
off the heads of her captor, his wife, and children. Thus 
making their end afford some compensation for the loss 
of her own honour and the murder of her father, she 
hastened out of the house, and meeting with the first 
well, precipitated herself into its depths. Many people 
suspect this to be a trumped-up sensation-storj'-, and 
believe her to be living quietly in the family of her 
captor, under a Mahomedan name. But she has not 
turned up, for all the inquiries made about her, — and we 
would fain believe her to have put an end to her life, 



The House of the Massacre. 341 

that had before it the dreary prospect of a life-long 
ignominy. 

There is no forgetting, however, by anybody the 
House of the Massacre, By a strange fatality, this hap- 
pens to be between the Theatre and the Assembly-Rooms 
of former days — the house of wail and woe by the side 
of the houses of laughter and revelry. The building is 
a small one, said to have formed the humble residence 
of an Eurasian clerk. To have penned two hundred and 
six human beings in the compass of this small building 
was by itself almost another Black-Hole affair. In the 
centre of the open compound stands the trunk of a 
withered tree, — the same against which the heads of 
children had been dashed to pieces, as the story went 
its round, — and on which afterwards was hung many a 
scoundrel to pay life for life — the retribution of a mad- 
dened ITemesis. Close by is the well into which the 
bodies of the murdered women and children were thrown. 
The mouth is now closed, and a cemetery has been 
raised over it by the hands of those who had been late 
only by four and twenty hours to have come to the 
rescue of those unfortunate beings. There is no sadder 
spot upon the earth than this scene of the most atrocious 
bloodshed. Death is here associated with all that is 
darkest in human nature, and darkest in human destiny. 
By this little cemetery shall the traveller of a distant 
day stand, to reflect upon those hapless mothers and 
babies, who fell victims to a massacre the horrors of 
which even fiction cannot exaggerate, and which is in- 
delible from memory. The falcon darts not at a wren. 



34^ Travels of a Hindoo, 

The lion springs not upon a lambkin. The infuriated 
elephant hurts not an infant. Throughout all Nature 
weakness has a sacred claim upon strength. Never has 
a plausible motive been wanting to furnish an excuse 
for the shedding of feminine or infant blood. To pro- 
pitiate his cause, had Nana vowed to the Indian Kali to 
offer a hecatomb of English ladies and children, the ' 
madness of superstition would have been a specious 
apology in the eyes of mankind. But a wanton and 
cold-blooded massacre of innocents who could not elude 
the grasp, is an act the motive for which is an inex- 
plicable problem in psychology, — and an act which 
blackens the page of Indian history with the deepest 
stain.* 

Took a gharry to drive down to the Intrenchments. 
To even the most inexperienced eye is apparent their 
ill-chosen site in the midst of a maidan far away from 
the magazine and the river. The position was not 
more ill-chosen than ill- fortified, and not more ill- 
watered than ill-provisioned. To such an extremity 
had the garrison been reduced for want of provisions, 
as to have eaten up a bull, a pariah dog, and an aged 
horse — fabulous food in this nineteenth century, that is 
read of in the accounts of old shipwrecks. Three 
years ago, this was the arena of the greatest of all 
human struggles — a struggle between overwhelming 
hordes and a heroic few, between mind and material, 
between civilization and barbarism. The shot-pierced 

* * It is good that the house and the well of horror have been 
replaced by a fair garden and a graceful shrine.' — Cannpore. 



The Suttee-Ckowra Ghaut, 343 

barracks speak of a hotter fire than that of an Indian 
sun. The low earthworks have been nearly washed 
away by the autumnal rains. Cawnpore had no history 
before — its very name now evokes associations enough 
to fill up a volume. 

Next, to the Suttee-Chowra ghaut, so called from 
Suttees formerly burning themselves here. This is a 
mile to the north-west of the Intrenchments. There 
was fire above, the burning straw-roofs of the boats : 
there was the river below : there was death in the 
front, and destruction in the rear. In the midst of 
such an infernal scene closed their career many a 
worthy being, some shot, others sunk, and the rest 
slaughtered — their bodies left for a carnival to dogs 
and vultures. Old Ganges had never been so outraged 
as on that day, when she had to float down corpses of 
men, women, and children, murdered under the in- 
fatuation of emptying England of Englishmen. The 
village has met its due. But the temple of the Fisher- 
men's god stiU stands. 

Once, in Hindoo antiquity, the Khetryas were a 
pampered and high-bearing class like the Sepoys. The 
modem Sepoy Revolt may find a parallel in the ancient 
Khetrya revolt. But fable disfigures the account of the 
excesses of Khetrya domination, and the event has no 
historic lessons for posterity. But the excesses of Pandy 
rapacity, licentiousness, and cruelty, shall be a warning 
to the kings and nations of a distant age. Upon Nana 
is the mark of Cain, and he is doomed to wander from 
jungle to jungle — ^now clambering up the rock, and then 



344 Travels of a Hindoo. 



toiling through the Himalayan snows — ^till, at last, sore 
and weary, famished by hunger, and cursed by retro- 
spection, he shall lay himself down to die, inch by inch, 
of starvation and disease, — and leave a name for the 
eternal execration of mankind. 

No class of men had found themselves so insnared 
all of a sudden in the meshes of danger, as tlie Natives 
of Bengal, who then happened to be serving or trading 
in the TTpper Provinces. It was the Bengalee who had 
ushered in the foreigner to the land, and he should 
suffer now for his crime. Thus proscribed, the out-of- 
door Bengalees had been at their wits' end how to fly off 
in a tangent to their homes. Many of them succeeded in 
skulking away under strange disguises. But those that 
fell into the hands of ITana's scouts were carried up be- 
fore him, and made to part with their ears and noses. 
Of some the right hands were chopped off for the sin 
of using the English ^ gray goose quill.' Though no- 
body has turned up with a mutilated nose or limb to 
meet our eyes, yet the story served to echo the opinion, 
and to give an earnest of the paternal government 
which men had to expect. Now that things have re- 
turned to their old order, many Bengalees are up here 
again. Turning the tables, they are now seen to give 
themselves high airs, and to lord it over the crest-fallen 
and cowed-down Hindoostanees, whom you see to go 
along the roads like so many knights of the rueful 
countenance. Those who purposed have mightily suc- 
ceeded * to establish a great funk.' 

Returned past by the tete-de-pont of Sir Colin. The 



The Ganges-Canal, 345 

earthworks, still under garrison, are just at the head of 
the bridge-of-boats that leads one to the dominions of 
ancient Rama. 

There is the Ganges — the Bhagiruthi-Gunga, and 
there is the Ganges-Canal — ^the Cautley-Gunga of the 
natives. The excavation of the canal is deep enough, 
but from men bathing in it, the water did not appear 
to be more than waist-high. In one or two places up 
from Cawnpore, the canal has been brought by aque- 
ducts over bridges, under which the Ganges pursues its 
course — an engineering skill which appears very extra- 
ordinary in native eyes. The canal is some 400 miles 
long, but so great is the travelling speed of its water, 
that even at Cawnpore it retains an icy coldness — com- 
ing as it does from the eternal snows and glaciers of 
the Himalayas. The banks here are built up of ma- 
sonry steps in the fashion of a ghaut. Three locks 
successively break the velocity of the headlong stream, 
and the chafing waters forcing through narrow inter- 
stices are heard like distant waterfalls. There is a 
Ganges- Canal Navigation Company set on foot, and we 
saw some of their flat-bottomed vessels to ply up and 
down the canal. This gigantic work, undertaken to 
make famines impossible, is said to be becoming dearer 
every day the more it costs and the less it yields. By 
Nana's fiat, the famous Ganges-Canal had been given 
away as a perquisite to his favourite Azeemollah — his 
ex-khitmutgar minister. 

Little or nothing to see in the native quarters — no 
ancient houses, no ancient families, no ancient wealth. 



34^ Travels of a Hindoo. 

no ancient toles, and no ancient temples : all here have 
grown within the memory of living man. The only 
thing that struck us as ancient is the dingy crowded 
mode of habitation with narrow tortuous paths — un- 
changed by thirty centuries ; unchangeable, perhaps, 
by thirty more. 

Back to the lodgings, quite knocked up, and hot, 
and hungry. Gave a lusty call for the hooka. Then 
rushed to the waters to bring our temperature down to 
90^ Fahrenheit. Next sat to a breakfast of steaming- 
keechery, chappaties, hill-potatoes, chutnees, and sweet- 
meats, quite in the good old style of the Hindoostanees 
— who despite their vegetarianism, make as good sol- 
diers as those who choose their food by their canine 
teeth. In the party, there was a friend who had been 
introduced to us as banian to a respectable European 
solicitor. He gave us the story of a very extraordinary 
adventure. No sooner had Cawnpore been retaken, and 
the country about it had got quiet, and the papers 
teemed with accounts of loot, than his master began to 
dream dreams, and see visions of diamonds, rubies, and 
pearls, bricked up in the walls and buried underneath 
the floors of the Nana's palace at Bithoor. They grew 
serious, and he got the permission of Government to 
try his speculation. Coming to Bithoor with his banian, 
he at once set himself to open the walls and dig the 
floors. No diamonds or rubies made their appearance. 
The female apartments might contain them. They were 
tried, but with no better result. Perhaps they were 
hid in the out-houses. Down went their walls and 



Pasty Present, and Future of Cawnpore, 347 

roofs, and still no diamonds. Unquestionably, they 
were lodged in the compounds and fields to lull all sus- 
picion. Twenty acres were carefully ploughed and 
spaded as if for a crop of peas, till at last the * nothing- 
venture-nothing-have ' solicitor stood aghast at 2000 
rupees gone. Unfortunately, this took place not in the 
days of the 'Limiteds.' The banian has got nothing 
but to tell his story. Indeed, he made the weeping 
philosopher stand aloof, and the laughing one to carry 
the day. 

The past of Cawnpore is made up of military parades 
and f^tes, of dinners to Governors- General, and of 
balls to high ofl&cial dames. The present forms a sad 
tale of sack, massacre, and desolation. But the future 
of it glows in the imagination as a thriving seat of trade 
and manufactures. Cawnpore is noted for the excel- 
lence and cheapness of all articles made from leather — 
saddlery, harness, boots and shoes, bottle-covers, and 
cheroot-cases. The manufacture was introduced by a 
colony of Chinese, who settled in the bazar many years 
ago. There were then three hundred shops engaged in 
the trade. The cattle slaughtered for the meat of four 
or five regiments of European troops, generally quar- 
tered here, not only gave an impetus to the trade, but 
also furnished a large portion of those hides which 
fetched the highest value in Calcutta. Lace-making 
and laced skull-caps were now almost the only manu- 
factures that we saw in a few of the shops. The nucleus 
of the Native town is at present of a small size. 
Scarcely is there a warehouse now, and goods are piled 



34^ Travels of a Hindoo. 

on the open greens. But before many years, when 
agricultural produce shall pour hither by rail, river, and 
road — from a large part of the surrounding country, 
and from the rich districts of Oude and Rohilcund — for 
transit to the port of shipping, a succession of ware- 
houses and sheds will extend to the Railway station. 
By the speculative Up-country wallahs, the place may 
be raised to the importance of the first cotton market in 
Hindoostan ; and in time, Hindoostanee enterprise, cal- 
culating on the profits of reviving the defunct manu- 
factures of their country, may emulate Manchester, and 
start projects for turning Cawnpore into a rival town. 
The cessation of its military importance would then be 
more than compensated by the enhancement of its com- 
mercial importance. 

The ekas are the only pubHc coaches that are avail- 
able to strangers at Cawnpore. In a short ramble 
through the ITatiye town, the only idol seen by us was 
the image of a Doorga, set up by a Bengalee Baboo, 
who came here on service and at last settled with his 
family. Comparatively, the Hindoostanee is less idol- 
atrous than the Bengalee. The former believes in Shiva, 
but does not encourage the barbarities of the CJiumck 
Pooja, He beHeves in Doorga, but does not worship 
her idol as a three-days' wonder, and then consign it to 
the river. He has gods and goddesses worshipped onlv 
in the public temples. He has rarely a domestic 8al- 
garam or statue of Krishna. His religious festivals are 
seldom tainted with idolatrous processions. Bengal 
long influenced by Buddhism, has lapsed into Brah- 



From Cawnpore to Agra, 349 

minism with a vengeance. The Bengalee Baboo carries 
idolatry wherever he goes. Alexander left cities to 
mark the track of his conquests. The Bengalee Baboo 
leaves idols to mark the track of his peregrination. It 
is English enterprise to set up schools and found hos- 
pitals. It is Bengalee enterprise to erect temples and 
put up idols. The Englishman teaches the Bengalee to 
bridge rivers and open railroads. The Bengalee teaches 
hook-swinging to the Santhal, and idol-making to the 
Hindoostanee. The Baboo who has set up the image of 
Doorga at Cawnpore is said to have brought artisans 
from Calcutta, because in Hindoostan they knew not 
how to make an idol riding upon a lion with ten arms. 
October 2Qtk, — ^Left for Agra by Lallah Joteepro- 
saud's dawk. It was one of his brethren, Lallah Tanti- 
mul, who first started the project of an Inland Transit 
Company. Immediately out of Cawnpore, the sub- 
urbs are raviney. But soon the country assumes a 
level surface, and fields succeed to fields spreading an 
uninterrupted sheet of cultivation. The tall stalks of 
the jowaray with their tufted crests, appear to stand 
like close-arrayed regiments. Groves of mangoes at 
intervals make the landscape highly picturesque. But 
the dusty road is a positive nuisance. Dawking also 
soon turns out to be a sore method of locomotion. The 
horse at the third stage was a most stubborn animal. 
He was brought out and harnessed, but an attempt to 
start him made him rear violently, and to stand straight 
on his hind legs. Our companions had a better luck, 
and scampered oflf past by us, hallooing and hurrahing 




^^o Travels of a Hindoo. 

in a Jolm Gilpin style, — while, left at a dead stand, we 
had to cry out for the Mazeppa of Byron. 

The Doab, like Bengal, is flat and alluvial. The 
vast plain is uninterrupted by a single eminence ;* but 
the soil and climate differ in the same degree as does a 
nindoostanee from a Bengalee. The Doab has not the 
matchless fertility of that 'vast expanse of emerald 
meadow,' which is saturated with the moisture of the 
Bay of Bengal. The cocoa and palmyra thrive not in 
a nitrous soil. But the tract which derives its fruitful- 
ness from the copious streams of the Ganges and Jum- 
na, ranks next in the luxuriance of its vegetation and 
the greenness of its landscapes. The signs of a better 
climate are visible in the tall and robust figure, the firm 
step, the stern eye, and the erect bearing of the manly 
nindoostanee. There are seldom the mists and rains, 
which, brought up by a soft southern wind from a 
boundless ocean, make Bengal a pestilential swamp, 
exhaling frightful diseases, and stinting the growth of 
its men and cattle. The sharp west wind of Upper 
India rapidly dries up the soil, to improve the quality 
of its grain, vegetables, and fruitery. Rarely is a taint 
left on the air to carry off men by periodic epidemics. 
The effect of more nutritive food and climatic salubrity, 
is not more manifested in the greater physical develop- 
ment than in the superior intellectual stamina of the 
Hindoostanees. In Bengal, because nature does so 

♦ * The hill of Prabasha, near ancient Kausambi, on the Jumna, 
about thirty miles above Allahabad, is the only rock on the Doab of 
the Ganges and Jumna. '— Cunning?M7fi. 



Chowleypore, 351 



much, the lazy people will do nothing. Here, hardi- 
hood must toil for bread. The insufficiency of rainfall 
has to be made up by artificial irrigation. No tanks — 
in their place the country is scattered with a frequency 
of wells, tapped to the depth of fifty to eighty feet. 
Each field has its own well — and down an inclined bank 
of earth, the husbandman drives his team, drawing up 
water in a huge leathern bag to irrigate his crops. 
The villages are built in open tracts, with scarcely any 
vegetation about them. This is in marked contrast 
with the sylvan villages of Bengal. It is to be ascer- 
tained, which of them has the greater advantage in 
point of sanitation. The huts are all mud- walled and 
mud-terraced. They are decidedly inferior in appear- 
ance to an Arcadian cottage of Bengal, which, says 
Elphinstone, 'with its trim curved thatched roof and 
cane walls, is the best looking in India.' 

Chowheypore is picturesquely situated — it has a fine 
masonry well by the road-side. In this petty village 
had been stationed a squadron of Native cavalry. On 
the afternoon of the 9th June, 1857, the officers in 
command had sat down over their luncheon. The sound 
of a bugle interrupted their repast, and gave them the 
alarm. Flinging themselves on horseback, they rode 
for dear life. But the captain was shot down in his 
saddle, and cut in pieces where he lay. Two subalterns 
had taken to the water like hunted stags, and there 
miserably perished. Two others had sought refuge in 
a neighbouring village, but had been driven back to fall 
into the hands of their pursuers. One lieutenant alone. 



35^ Travels of a Hindoo. 

by dint of hard riding, escaped to Cawnpore with a 
bullet-hole in his cheek. 

Mera-ka-serai is the charitable institution of a Ma- 
homedan. It is an elegant and commodious caravanserai 
for the accommodation of merchants and travellers. 
The buildings enclose a spacious square, planted here 
and there with trees to spread their shade. In the 
middle of the square is a large masonry-built well, with 
excellent water. Both Hindoos and Mahomedans halt 
at this serai. In one room does the Kanougian Brah- 
min cook his meal of dall and chuppatee, — in the other 
does the Mussulman boil his onion-kechree. The fierce 
noonday-heat, the toil and fatigue of journey, for a 
while make them forget their mutual antipathies. 
Hunger and thirst have no caste. 

Three miles north of Mera-ka-serai, and across some 
indigo fields, lie the ruins of Kanouge — ^the once mighty 
city * of thirty miles circumvallation, of thirty thousand 
betel-shops, and of sixty thousand public dancers and 
singers.' The steps of the traveller are naturally turned 
to a scene, of which such romantic accounts have been 
left both by Hindoo and Mahomedan writers. But he 
has to tread only upon prostrate walls and broken gate- 
ways, and contemplate a blank of shapeless ruins. Year 
after year, for six long centuries, have the solstitial 
rains of an Indian autimin washed away the vestiges ; 
or the dust-storms of Upper India, rolling over the spot, 
have embedded them beneath an accumulated soil. The 
towers and palaces of the proud Rahtores have been laid 
low for many a century. The ancient population has 



Kanouge, 353 

long disappeared. Upon the spot there linger only a 
few thousand Brahmins, weavers, artisans, and peasants, 
— in the same manner that * Arabs hut or encamp upon 
the ruins of Palmyra and Balbec/ The appearance of 
Kanouge is exceedingly desolate — it stands * childless 
and crownless in a voiceless woe.' 

Of Kanouge — the Kanya-kubja of Puranic geo- 
graphy — the earliest mention is found in Menu, as 
identified with Punchala. The limits of its kingdom as 
assigned in the Mahabarat nearly agree with those as- 
signed in the ' Rajasthan.' It was an important city in 
the age of Buddha, who had preached here a lecture on 
the instability of human existence. To commemorate 
this event, Asoca had built a stitpa or mound 200 feet 
high. It is then noticed by Ptolemy in his Geography. 
Fa Hian and Hwen Thsang next visited it — the one in 
the beginning of the fifth, the other in the middle of 
the seventh century. Though in Hwen Thsang's time 
there reigned a Rajah by the name of Harsha Vardhana, 
ruling from Cashmere to Assam, and from ITepal to the 
Nerbudda, the city had not then been of a larger size 
than three half-miles in length, and three-quarters of a 
mile in breadth. It was surrounded by strong walls 
and deep ditches, and washed by the Ganges along its 
eastern face. Two hundred and fifty years later, Ka- 
nouge is spoken as 'a great city' by Abu Zaid. In 
A.D. 915, the well-known geographer Masudi speaks of 
it as ' the capital of one of the four great kings of India.' 
Just a century afterwards, the historian of Mahmood 
relates that ' he there saw a city which raised its head 

VOL. I. 23 



354 Travels of a Hindoo. 

to the skies, and which in strength and structure might 
justly boast to have no equal. In another hundred and 
seventy-five years, it attained a still greater splendour 
and opulence, and became that overgrown city of a lux- 
urious and effeminate people, which fell an easy prey to 
the Ghorian — when with the fall of Kanouge ended 
Hindoo independence. The last scion of the Rahtores 
departed to found a new kingdom far away in Marwar, 
— and deserted Kanouge, as described by Ebn Batuta, 
only a hundred and fifty years later, had dwindled itself 
to a * small town.' 

Tip to the middle of the seventh century, Kanouge 
was more a Buddhistical than a Brahminical city. 
The Rajah of the land was a Buddhist, and had intimi- 
dated the King of Cashmere into surrendering the 
tooth of Buddha. There were three great monasteries 
to the south of the town, in one of which Tvas a Vihara, 
or chapel, wherein * this tooth had been preserved in a 
casket adorned with precious stones raised on a high 
pedestal. It was shown daily to crowds of people, 
although the tax charged for its exhibition Tvas a large 
piece of gold. Perfumes were burned before it by thou- 
sands of votaries, and the flowers which were stre'WTi in 
profusion over it were devoutly believed never to con- 
ceal the casket.' The probable [site of the monasteries 
and the Vihara is supposed to be the larg-e mound to- 
wards the south-east of the town, in what is- now called 

% 

the mahalla of Lala Misr Tola.* 

There were many other monasteries and chapels 

* * Archa3ological Report.' — Cunningham. 



Kanouge, — Brahminical Temples, — the Citadel. ^^^ 

with stone foundations, but walls of brick, — one of 
which, 200 feet high, was dedicated to a statue of 
Buddha 30 feet in height. In another were his hair 
and nails. Just in the same manner that the remains 
of Buddha had furnished sacred relics to his followers 
in ancient India, had the bones of the saints been car- 
ried all over Christendom for the edification of the pious. 
Human nature is alike in all ages and countries, and 
*we cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall 
relish of it.' 

Only two Brahminical temples are spokeil of by 
Hwen Thsang that were dedicated to Shiva. They 
were of the same form and size as the Viharas of 
Buddha, and built of blue stone highly polished, and 
adorned with excellent sculptures. The Brahmins now 
cannot find the money to build such magnificent tem- 
ples, and they have degenerated in architectural skill. 
The fact of only two Brahminical temples, shows the 
great minority in which the Brahmins yet stood in the 
middle of the seventh century. But Puranic idolatry 
was slowly making its way, and gaining a foothold in 
all the principal cities of the land. 

Of the remains of Kanouge, the most prominent 
is the triangular-shaped citadel, which occupies the 
highest ground in the midst of a scorched plain. It 
makes a large and lofty mound, raising its head in de- 
fiance of time, war, flood, and fire, nearly 50 feet in 
height from the level of the ground. The three faces 
have been measured, each about 4000 feet long. The 
situation has been remarked to be 'a commanding one. 







.L J ::_1^^::-1 ^iTy- 






;, ".'-.--. -'-■- '~:i in::m> 




. ;; ■.. ' . -.. 


;.; ;:.:.. ,-.^TT^.-li7i-^S llw 




'.'.. 


-,}-:-:- iT-.j: iiioaasteriw 




.; v.- '■.-.::_ : . 


;. w,:' which wa* a ri^cro. 


■„ ■;..,.■;, „). 




■1 liM'l been preserved in a 


'.. \-' :'!'.,.,< 


'1 v.i!!, i,,-f;:-,.; 


s fiUmcs raised on a Hgh 


|."|. 1 ,1 tl. 


V.i. .. J,.AVJ. .1 


uily to orowda of people, 


iiiil mI< I)"' 


(i.K .JmrK(.l foi 


'ijd^^^^H 


liiiw I'/lfafd. 


I'orfmiiu«ffer« 




|>l'nrilM..I1 iiv.'i 


::ra 


■P^ 


m\\ llktf IMJ^y 


i^jLjM 




»na4lS 


m^M 


^^^\ 



Kanovge, — Brahminical Temples, — the Citadel. 355 

with stoue foundations, but walls of brick, — one of 
wbicb, 200 feet bigb, waa dedicated to a statue of 
Cuddba UO feet in height. In another were his hair 
and nails. Just in the same manner that the remains 
of Buddha had furnished sacred relics to his followers 
in ancient India, bad the bones of the sainln been car- 
ried all over Christendom for the edification of the pious. 
Human nature is alike in all ages and countries, and 
'we canuot so iuoculate our old stock, but we shall 
relish of it.' 

Only two Brahminical temples are spoken of by 
Ilwen Thsang that were dedicated to Shiva. Her 
wei'c of the same form and size as the Viharw rf 
Bnddlia, and built of blue stone highly polished, umI 
adorned with excellent sculptures. The Brahmins nsv 
cannot find the money to bmld such magnificent tffl^- 
ples, and they have degenerated in architectnnl Ait 
The fact of only two Brahminical temples, (kws ^e 
M^m^nty in which the Brahmins yet rtoat i ^n 
|»,»Bventh century. But Pan»r ■""T" 
lldlig its way, and gaininf ■ i^att — 
il cities of the land. 

1 of Kanouge, tfce ^^ ^^^zhit 

d i 




r 



35^ Travels of a Hindoo, 

— and before the use of caunon tlie heigrht alone must 
have made Kanouge a strong and important position/ 
In all its entirety, it could not have failed to appear in 
the eyes of ilahmood as raising its head to the skies. 

The Rancj'Mahal — in the south-west angle of the 
fort — had been the ancient Hindoo palace. It is 
strengthened in front by four towers. The brick 
wall faced with blocks of kunkur is seven feet tliick 
on the top, and 40 feet high, above the level of the 
bazar. There is the first outer wall, and then there is 
a second, a third, and a fourth inner wall : the distances 
between each may fairly give us an idea of the breadth 
of a room in an ancient Hindoo palace. As far as it 
can be traced, the palace seems to have covered * an 
area 240 feet in length by 180 feet in breadth.' It is 
said to have been built by Ajoy Pal — probably the same 
who had been come upon all of a sudden by Mahmood, 
and who in 1021 had been defeated and killed by a 
great confederate Hindoo army under the leader- 
ship of the Rajah of Callinger. Imagination conjures 
up here the brilliant scene of Jychand's Rajshye — the 
last that India has witnessed of that august Hindoo 
ceremony. In the wicket, which still remains, and ap- 
l)ears to have formed a side entrance to the court-yard 
of the palace, might be fancied to have been placed the 
effigies in gold of Saraarsi and Pirthi-raj acting as a 
porter and scullion, — those heroic chiefs who had dis- 
dained to sanction by their presence the audacious pro- 
ceedings of their rival. There had been gathered here 
almost all the crowned heads of India ; and from the 



Kanouge^ — the Jummah Musjeed. 357 

midst of this assembled royalty, did Pirthi-raj carry off 
in open day the daughter of his antagonist — the beauti- 
ful Sunjogta, the Indian Helen of her age. It was just 
outside the south-east buttress of Rang Mahl, that 
twenty-nine golden ingots were discovered in 1834, 
each weighing eighteen seers and three-quarters. 

In the Jummah Miisjeed of Kanouge, built on the 
site and with the materials of a Brahminical temple, 
may be seen a specimen of the ancient Hindoo cloisters. 
There is another mosque to the south-east of the cita- 
del, and overlooking the ancient deserted bed of the 
Ganges, in which the pillars are also Hindoo. Near 
this mosque had stood a broken image of Shusti, the 
goddess of fecundity, and a pedestal bearing date a.d. 
1136. This great curiosity for Hindoo mothers has 
disappeared by the wanton zeal of a Mahomedan Tehsil- 
dar, who should not have any more meddled with Hin- 
doo relics and idols, when his nation had ceased to be 
the rulers of the land, and to whom may be repeated 
Newton's well-known saying, * Ah, Diamond, you little 
know the mischief thou hast done.' All Mahomedans 
should know that the days of idol-breaking have been 
succeeded by the days of idol- seeking for the illustra- 
tion of Hindoo history. 

There are two' statues to be seen at Sing Bhairani — 
of Rama and Luchmun, as they are called by the people. 
Their eight arms of each, however, contradict the popu- 
lar supposition. Outside the building, there are figures 
of Doorga slaying the IMahesasoor, and of Shiva and 
Parvati on the bull Nandi. These specimens serve to 



358 Travels of a Hindoo, 

show the full development of Puranic idolatry, and the 
total extinction of all Buddhism in Kanouge by the 
twelfth century. 

From the sites of the existing ruins, and also the 
chief find-spots of coins and relics, may be determined 
the probable extent of ancient hona-fide Kanouge. The 
* thirty miles circumvallation ' seems to be an exaggera- 
tion of the Hindoo writers. The * thirty-thousand betel- 
leaf shops ' is also very suspicious. The betel has cer- 
tainly been a great favourite of our nation, as a digestive 
aperient, from days beyond the age of Menu. By the 
women it is liked, because it gives to them the * balmy 
breath ' of Desdemona. But in Calcutta, at the present 
day, there would hardly be five hundred betel-leaf 
shops.* Taking Kanouge to have been six times larger 
than Calcutta, the proportion would not give to it more 
than three thousand shops. The betel again grows 
scantily in Upper India, and sells at half-a-dozen leaves 
per pice, or six times dearer than in Calcutta. Though 
the Hindoostanees are the most famous betel-leaf chew- 
ers under the sun, still the statement of thirty thousand 
shops, or thousand shops to a mile, is to be taken with 
considerable abatement. As to ' the sixty thousand 
families of public dancers and singers,' if it had really 
been the case then, taking each family to have consisted 
of four members, near two hundred and fifty thousand 
men and women, or about half the population of ancient 
Kanouge, must have fiddled away their time, — and it is 

* Tlie Justices of the Peace ought to publish the statistics which 
the ' Licensing Act ' has enabled them to possess. 



Kanoiigey—Jive Brahmins imported. 359 

no wonder that their city should have fallen, whilst they 
may have been engaged in screwing tight the pegs of 
their tambourines. 

Buddhist Kanouge had at last grown to be so highly 
Brahminical and orthodox, that five Brahmins had been 
imported from it by Adisura to improve the degenerate 
stock in Bengal. Of their breeding are our high-caste 
Banerjees and Chatterjees, The five Brahmins had been 
accompanied by five Sudra servants, who are the pro- 
genitors of our worthy Glioses and BosesJ* How much 
is it deplored now, that the Sena Rajah did not send for 
five pairs of Hurriana bulls and heifers to improve the 
cattle of Bengal, — rather than have planted the social 
upas of Koolinism, which keeps a Brahmin lady in 
misshood till her gray hairs, and which sanctions the 
marriage of a girl with a dying octogenarian at the 
funeral ghaut. 

Until this day we had not been aware of there being 
any fish-eaters amongst the granivorous Hindoostanees, 

* Our Glioses and Boses are not more Boss-branded than our 
Sudra women are Bossee-hranded. It is right that Young Bengal 
Kayusts have dropped the affix of a Sudra origin from their names. 
In the same way should the disgraceful affix be taken off from the 
names of our Sudra females. The Brahmin women now are no more 
goddesses than the Kayust and Bunniah women are slave-girls. Your 
Shamasoondry Bossee is a millionnaire lady, — your Kaminee Bahce 
(to speak not in an vnkindly spirit, but for argument's sake) is a 
cook-maid in a Sudra household. How outrageous it is that Shama- 
soondry should inscribe her name as a Bossee or slave-girl on a 
Government Security for 6 lacs, or on lawsuit papers in a case at the 
High Court for a Zemindary of 50,000 rupees income ! The British 
Indian Association should make a move in the matter— and Pundit 
Eshwara Chunder Biddyasagur should come forward as a Brahmin to 
take off the slur that Brahmins have cast on the names of our Sudra 
females. The Hindoostanee Sudra women have no such disgraceful 
affix to their names. 



360 Travels of a Hindoo, 

and that again in orthodox Kanouge. The fact was 
imparted to us by a respectable Misr Brahmin, who told 
us that his brotherhood at Kanouge make no objection 
to eat fish at their meals. 

Traced back our way from Kanouge, and proceeded 
as fast as possible on our journey. Mango topes aft^r 
mango topes — they dot almost the whole face of the 
Doab. By the side of every tope is a well. The well 
and the tope are married, as in Bengal they solemnize 
hymeneals between a banyan and an asut tree. These 
rural picnics are celebrated with great pomp and re- 
joicings. The proprietor who is capable, feasts the 
whole village near which the tope is planted. The well 
is regarded as the husband, because its waters nourish 
the plantation. In India, the custom of planting trees 
and digging wells is very ancient. Menu has instruc- 
tions about them. That which seems to have arisen 
from sanatory considerations, is now followed as a re- 
ligious duty. They make wells and plant topes, not for 
any worldly profit, but for the benefit of their souls in 
the next world : ' the names of the great men who 
built the castles, palaces, and tombs at Delhi and Agra 
have been almost forgotten, because no one derives any 
advantage from them; but the names of those who 
planted the man go- groves are still remembered and 
blessed by all who eat of their fruit, sit in their shade 
and drink of their water, from whatever part of the 
world they come.' 

Our route now lay through a country which pos- 
sessed little interest, and was perfectly level in its 



Trains of Waggons drawn ly Oxen. ^6\ 

character. Passed by several unknown and uninterest- 
ing villages. The principal objects on the way were 
long trains of waggons, fifty or sixty together, drawn 
by oxen, and carrying merchandise. The up-country 
carts are as superior as are its oxen. The weight taken 
by a cart is over sixty maunds, or three times more than 
the weight taken in Calcutta. The carts are drawn by 
three bullocks — one being placed in front of the other 
two. There is a fourth which follows behind, as a re- 
serve, to act in contingencies. The mild-eyed animals 
have little bells suspended on their necks, and raise a 
pleasing sound as they move on at a jog-trot pace. 
The goods are protected by a framework from dropping 
on to the ground. The waggoners have among them 
spare wheels, and hammers, and tools, and everything 
necessary for a journey of several hundred miles. They 
encamp at night in caravan style, and sleep on the top 
of their goods. These superior vehicles ought to super- 
sede the miserable cartage in the streets of Calcutta, 
and economize the trade-charges of its merchants. The 
number of carts met proceeding along the road was 
endless. Now a string of them extended for half a mile 
— then a knot of some twenty or thirty of them nearly 
blocked up the passage. The carts were principally 
laden with grain, and thickened at every stage of our 
progress. From their constant processions the road has 
.suffered great wear and tear. In many places it has 
become level with the fields. The earth on the surface 
has been turned into knee-deep dust, and bullocks 
wading through it raised thick volumes obscuring the 



362 Travels of a Hindoo, 

sun, and suflfocating the traveller. The clouds of dust 
in the distance always gave us timely notice to let down 
the curtains and raise the glasses of our gharry. Occa- 
sionally, there passed also long lines of camels led by 
the nose ; and herds of donkeys trudging under loaded 
sacks of com, fuel-wood, or metalling-stones. To all 
appearance, this life and bustle betokened a great traflSc 
along the thoroughfare. But the stir seemed to be of 
an unusual character. There was a meaning in the 
portentous hot haste to transport grain from one district 
to another. The annual rain- fall has failed, and there 
has not fallen a drop in the last forty days. The 
drought has parched up the earth. The fields have got 
embrowned. The wells have fallen sixty to seventy feet 
deep. The crop on the ground has lost the green of its 
verdure. The price of food-staples has risen nearly fifty 
per cent., and the prognostications of an inevitable 
famine are in everybody's mouth. Hence the Brinjarees 
are taking care to provide against the day of need and 
distress, by housing and laying in stores of corn. 

The husbandman is a little meteorologist. He is 
weather-wise enough to make his predictions with a 
near certainty. The evil, however, may yet be averted 
by a timely good shower. The rural population there- 
fore look up with wistful eyes to the sky, for the com- 
ing on of a * cloud-messenger ' of plenty. But nowhere 
in the heavens is a speck to be seen. The wind holds 
up its breath, and stirs not a leaf. The day has a dull 
clouded lustre, and keeps down the heat. The nights 
are cool. There is in the temperature that steady and 



Droughty — Famine. 363 



equable character which least of all promises a change. 
They fail not to understand these as premonitory symp- 
toms foreshadowing the event that in a few months hence 
is to turn these fair regions, now so crowded with a 
healthful and industrious population, into a valley of 
misery, disease, and death. 

From the Ganges at Cawnpore to the Jumma at 
Agra, the distance is nearly two hundred miles. All this 
long tract is unwatered by a single natural stream. The 
Ganges-Canal running through it debouches in two 
branches, one to the Jumma, and the other to the 
Ganges. But artificial irrigation in a season of drought 
answers little better than slaking the imquenchable 
thirst of a man in high fever. Ten thousand wells and 
canals are not equal to one good shower of heaven. 
The provinces of Upper India are as remarkable for 
their fertility and high state of cultivation, as for their 
being subject to periodic visitations of famine. Fre- 
quent allusions to dearths and afflictions of scarcity are 
met with in Menu. His justification of Ajigurtha is a 
proof that parents sold their children in distress even 
then. Famines have recurred periodically from age to 
age, and still mankind is as ignorant of their cause as 
three thousand years ago. The fiend mocks at the im- 
potence of humanity, and laughs over his prey with a 
' hyena-laughter.' Not till the secrets of meteorology 
are revealed to man, must he bow down his head to the 
infliction of that terrible scourge. There are laws as 
much to regulate the rains, as to regulate the droughts ; 
and the day is surely destined to dawn, when the recur- 



3<^4 Travels of a Hindoo, 

rence of storms and droughts will be calculated witli 
the same precision as the recurrence of eclipses and the 
return of comets. 

A hurricane wrecking a fleet of ships on the sea, 
and a cyclone uprooting houses and plantations upon 
the land — a conflagration reducing towns to ashes, and 
an inundation washing away whole villages — a battle- 
field of the wounded and slain, and an hospital of the 
diseased and dying, — are no doubt the most awful 
amongst the scenes and sights of human misery. But 
they are misfortunes local and temporary in their cha- 
racter. Far otherwise is the calamity which overtakes 
mankind under the name of famine. The sight of a 
famine- stricken land is the most frightful and heart- 
rending of all earthly spectacles. The famine desolates 
tracts hundreds of miles in extent. The famine num- 
bers its victims by hundreds and thousands. It spares 
few living objects. The insects die for having nothing 
to feed on. The fishes become extinct in the shrunken 
rivers. The cattle die off in vast numbers, paralyzing 
labour for many a day to come. In the households of 
men, ornaments, utensils, and the very doors and win- 
dows of their houses are sold to buy grain, and dole it 
in mouthfuls to the members. There is then left no- 
thing more to eat on the morrow. Fruits, roots, have 
been all consumed, — and at last the barks of trees are 
stripped to appease the gnawings of hunger. Now does 
the husband abandon the wife, the wife the husband, — 
and parents sell their children. All cares, all affec- 
tions, and all hopes are forgotten ; food, food alone is 



The Results of Famine. 365 

the object. Famished, and demoralized, and maddened, 
and brutalized, the population at last arrives at the 
desperate extremity of ' competing with the birds for 
the half-digested grains of corn found amid the soil of 
the road.' Then do men cast cannibal looks, and fall 
foul of each other. In the train of famine, comes pesti- 
lence to bring up the rear of human miseries. Diseases, 
which strange and imwholesome food engenders, make 
their appearance, — and the gaunt skeletons of bone and 
skin, no longer able to keep their legs, drop on the road 
and are devoured alive by dogs, who have acquired an 
unnatural ferocity from feeding on human bodies. In 
all directions, lie scattered the dead ; and where they 
lie, they rot and their bones bleach — it being impossi- 
ble for their feeble survivors to do them the funeral 
rites. The districts thus depopulated do not recover 
for a series of years — sometimes never at all. Happily, 
the present age is one of extended commerce, of rapid 
communication and transit, of a beneficent Government, 
and of an enlightened generation, all of which it is 
hoped shall be able to combat with the evil, and miti^ 
gate its afflictions.* 

All along the land is yet strewn with the wrecks of 
the late political storm. Here a dismantled building — 
there a burnt-down bungalow with its bare white walls 
against the sky. Passed by a village which has turned 
almost into a desert. The mud roofs of the houses 
have fallen in, and the mud walls are overgrown with 

* This alludes to the famine of 1861 in the North- West, and was 
written whilst that of 1866 was raging in Bengal. 



^66 Travels of a Hindoo, 

vegetation — their owners having fled the country to 
escape the halter. In front of the village were some 
old ricks of straw, and stacks of fuel- wood, and a knot 
of rotting idle carts, without anybody, perhaps, to own 
them. This is the picture of but a solitary village or 
two at intervals. In general, however, the country has 
settled down to a complete tranquillity. The cultivator 
is busily engaged in the fields. The shepherd tends 
his browsing cattle. The carpenters and blacksmiths 
are at their work again. The victuallers have opened 
their shops along the road. The dealers have exposed 
their wares and goods for sale. The merchants are 
transporting bales in the public bullock- trains. In fact, 
confidence has returned to all classes to resume their 
business of life. 

Nothing to see but joicara fields and mango topes 
without end. Originally, the mango tree did not grow 
in India. It flourished in Havana's garden in Ceylon. 
On the conquest of that island, the monkey- general 
Hunuman had been attracted to the fair orchards, and 
gorging himself with the fruit so delicious to the taste, 
had chosen to throw away the empty kernels across the 
sea, which took root and were first acclimatized in the 
soil of India Proper. The fruit of his exploit lives to 
this day, and it is not without reason that the Tamul 
general of Rama is counted as one of the six immortals 
of our nation. In the ninth century, the people of 
Orissa were called Huns.* Is the name of Hunuman 

♦ This is mentioned in the inscriptions in the Monghyr copper tablet, 
and also on the broken column of Sarun. — Asiatic Ilesearcheg, vol. ix. 



Travellers at a Resting-place. 367 

from the Huns, or from monkey-conditioned and mon- 
key-mannered foresters ? — a query to philologists and 
antiquarians. 

Halted at a magnificent tope. Many others had 
done the same to rest a while from the broiling sun. 
The crew gathered was very motley, — and the ground 
was covered with ehulas or cooking-places, some of 
which were being lighted, while others had been already 
lit, and had either the earthen pot or brass lotah of rice 
belling over them. The poor wretch who could not 
aflford to have two meals a day, had yet to wait for sun- 
set, and was now chewing only a handful or two of 
chenna or fried gram with a bit of salt. The better-off 
bunneah was there, kneading the dough with all the 
force of his arms. The high-caste Brahmin had a few 
paces off marked his choicka, or the untrespassable lines 
of his sacred cooking-place, and was munching away his 
cake of wheat-flour dipped in dal-porridge. The hun- 
gry chap who had dropped in first of all was measuring 
his length upon the earth, and enjoying his siesta with 
his head upon the baggage for safe custody. There 
happened to have halted, also, a Hindoo convert with 
his family and children. They were travelling in two 
bullock carts of the country, with little matting sheds 
to protect them from sun and wind. They carried with 
them their own commissariat, and baskets of poultry, 
and ' odds and ends useful on a journey.' The middle- 
aged, portly man — the father already of some ten boys 
and daughters — was out with his musket to look after a 
pigeon or partridge, while his dinner was being cooked 



368 Travels of a Hindoo, 



under the superintendence of his nut-brown lady. 
Though by no means in well-off circumstances, he and 
his family did not fail to make a marked contrast in 
their white and decent clothing: from the rest of the 
squalid and poorly clad company. The man was a 
Catechist, and was moving down to a new district to 
take charge of his flock. 

But apart from all company sat a woman, slightly 
reclining against her baggage, and keeping her eye 
upon a little boy that was playing before her, and eat- 
ing at turns from a scrip spread out for his repast. She 
had a fine cut of face, and a well-developed Grecian 
form for a sculptor^s model. She lives in Delhi, whence 
she is travelling do^vn the country to a distant relation. 
Since morning, she had been walking ten miles with 
her animate and inanimate burden on her body. Her 
pensive countenance betokened a sadness preying upon 
her heart. She had a husband serving as a grazier in 
the ranks of the late Sepoy army. The poor man fell 
in the mutiny, leaving no one to look after his wife and 
child. They have now no home in which to lay their 
heads — no resource to live upon but beggar^^. How 
many such there are, whom the recent mutiny has made 
homeless and penniless ! and how many more such there 
will shortly be, whom the famine shall make restless 
vagrants in search of food they cannot find ! 

On tlie way, it had been a novel sight for us to see 
a genteel young Ilindoostanee lady travel riding astride 
on horseback, while her husband walked on foot along- 
side the animal. Her face was hid by a veil, from be- 



Mynporee, — Shecoalad. 369 

neath which she gratified her womanly curiosity by a 
peep, at times, with her dark lustrous eyes upon the 
passengers. She had been left behind us far in the rear 
to travel slowly on her tat. But she, too, happened to 
come in, and alight at the grove for a short respite in 
her journey. The reader may think we are always 
harping on woman. But it is difficult to regard her, 
like Hamlet, as mere * quintessence of dust.' 

' Blood, pulse, and breast, confirm the Dardan shepherd's prize.' 

Near Bhowgaoriy the main road goes towards Delhi, 
and another road branches off towards Agra. Reached 
Mynporee — long the seat of a Hindoo Rajah descended 
from the house of Pirthi-raj. The ancient Hindoo fort- 
ress still overlooks the valley of the Esan — now a 
dried-up stream. In Mynporee, the population is chiefly 
Rajpoot. The female infanticide prevalent here for 
many generations has been suppressed. Mynporee was 
one of the hottest of mutiny tracts. But the town has 
settled down to its quiet pursuits, and exhibits the usual 
calm after a storm. 

October 30^^. — Daybreak at Shecoahad, The name 
of the place, the bake-houses, the meat-shops, the fowls 
domesticated in the dwelling-houses, the heaps of onions 
laid out for sale, the circumcised children playing naked 
in the streets, the Mussulmans with their shaven skull- 
capped heads, and the Mussulmanees with their voluptu- 
ous airs but bit-of-a-ferocious physiognomies, all indi- 
cated this to be a Mahomedan town. But everything 
Mahomedan is now seen in a stage of decay. From a 

VOL. I. 24 



370 Travels of a Hindoo. 

large, populous, and respectable town, Shecoabad has 
declined into a poor and squalid Tillage. None of the 
inhabitants appeared to be in a well-to-do condition. 
The numerous ruins of old buildings and tanks are 
proofs of a prosperous state which no longer meets the 
eye. Shecoabad is still regarded as the farthest town 
in which the polished Oordoo of the quondam Mogul 
Court of Agra is to this day spoken without any taint 
of rural corruption. The bazar here is well supplied 
with all sorts of provisions that a traveller can expect 
on the way. Singharas or water-chestnuts {Trapa bi- 
spinosa) are very large and abundant here — and tkoee 
fresh from the pond delicious. They form in these 
provinces a regular vegetation, covering all the tanks 
with their plantation. The kernels are sun-dried, and 
carried often to distant markets to sell like wheat or 
barley for food. 

As we proceeded everything about us bespoke of 
Hindoostan — the stalwart and muscular men, their tur- 
baned heads and tucked-up dhootieSy their Hindi col- 
loquy, the garment-wearing women, the mud-roofed 
houses, the fields of Jmcara, the dry soil and air, the 
superior cattle, the camels, the absence of the bamboo 
and cocoa, and the wells in place of tanks. In sea- 
board Bengal, bogs, fens, and forests cover nearly a 
third of its area. In the Doab almost every inch of 
land is under the plough. From Allahabad to Shecoa- 
bad there are four large cities, and villages at frequent 
intervals. A similar distance in Bengal is no doubt 
dotted with the same number of villages, but not one 



The Doah, 371 



town equal to Futtehpore, Cawnpore, or Mynporee. 
There townships, deserving of the name, occur only 
along the banks of the Bhagiruttee. If villages in the 
Doab are less picturesque, they are at the same time 
less subject to epidemics than the woody villages of 
Bengal. In a Bengal village hardly any better food is 
generally procurable than coarse rice, and lentils, and 
goor. In the rural districts of the Doab^ flour, vege- 
tables, fruits, milk, and sweetmeats are as abundant and 
excellent as in a metropolis. The food of a people is 
the best criterion of its condition. Here the rural popu- 
lation is more intelligent and spirited than the same 
class in Bengal. The ryot in Hindoostan is no less a 
bondsman to the mahajun than the ryot in Jessore or 
Dacca ; but he is more independent-minded, and would 
not tamely put up with the outrages that are inflicted 
by a Bengal Zemindar or Indigo-planter. Unquestion- 
ably, the humblest Doabee lives upon better food, and 
covers his body with more abundant clothing, than the 
humblest Bengalee. The cattle here are various. Camels, 
bufialoes, horses, donkeys, and oxen are all made to 
assist man in his labours. In Bengal the oxen alone 
form beasts of burden. The fashion of Hindoostanee 
coolieism is to take the load over the waist, and not 
upon the head. In Calcutta, the Baboos who talk big 
of politics and reformations, do not know what it is to 
ride. In Hindoostan, rural women perform journeys on 
horseback, — and princesses discuss the merits of horse- 
manship. The fondness of the Doabee women for 
coloured millinery certainly evinces a more refined 



372 Travels of a Hindoo, 



female taste, and to them may remotely be traced the 
impetus which is given to the various dye-manufactures 
of our country. The agricultural women of the Doab 
use ornaments of brass and bell-metal. The same class 
in Bengal is in the habit of wearing shell-omaments — 
ornaments that first came into fashion with the savages, 
though sometimes a pair of Dacca shell-bracelets may 
cost the sum of two hundred and fifty rupees. 

One particular ornament in general use amongst the 
Doabee women, of both the upper and lower classes, is 
the teeka, which is in the shape of a tiny crescent made 
of gold, silver, or tinsel, according as the female is cir- 
cumstanced. It is stuck with an adhesive substance on 
the forehead, just between the eyebrows. [The smooth 
white expanse of a female forehead — with the profile of 
the dark curls of hair, and the pair of lustrous orbs 
shedding their soft efiulgence, — forms the highest at- 
traction in the beauty of a woman. But Hindoos tanee 
taste mars the effect of that beauty by placing the feeka, 
like an imitated moon, in the broad heaven of a woman's 
face. These teekas are not a little prized and coveted 
by the Hindoostanee sparks. They train bitJbuIs to exe- 
cute little commissions of gallantry. On a given signal, 
the bird goes, seizes, and carries off the teeka from the 
forehead of a woman, as precious booty, to her pinin"* 
lover. 

In the days that Bishop Heber travelled throuo-h 
the Doab, he saw the very common people going to 
market carrpng swords and shields, spears, or match- 
lock guns. There was a time when agriculturists * were 



Former and present State of the Doah, 373 

obliged to follow the plough with their swords by their 
sides, and their friends around them with their match- 
locks in hand, and matches lighted.'* The nation was 
then one of lawless and violent habits, and no man was 
sure that he might not at any moment be called upon 
to fight for his life and property. This state of things, 
consequent on the anarchy which succeeded the efietism 
of the Mogul power, had ushered into existence various 
denominations of banditti. For a series of years, the 
thoroughfares of the Doab were haunted by brigands 
plundering and murdering in the broad daylight. It 
was on the discovery of thirty dead bodies in difierent 
wells of the Doab, that Thuggeeism first came to the 
knowledge of the Calcutta Council in 1810. But in 
fifty years the police has been so much reformed as that 
the Thug has entirely disappeared, and is known to our 
generation only from reading. The trader and traveller 
now pass along the loneliest highway without losing a 
pin. If a corpse were now discovered in a well, or 
found by the side of a jungle, it would cause a general 
uproar in the community, and create a greater sensation 
than the irruption of a Mahratta horde. The wicked 
have been weaned from their life of rapine, and taught 
to subordinate themselves to the authorities of society 
and the state. But the mutiny was a fatal error, and it 
once more plunged the country into the misrule of past 
ages. It jeopardized the vital interests of India, and 
was to have proved suicidal of her fate. The exit of the 
English would have undone all the good that is slowly 

* * Rambles and Recollections,' vol. ii. p. 181. 



374 Travels of a Hindoo. 

paving the way to her regeneration. Rightly under- 
stood, to own the g^yemment of the English is not so 
much to own the government of that nation, as to own 
the government of enlightened legislation, of the science 
and civilization of the nineteenth century, of superior 
intelligence aild genius, of knowledge itself. Under 
this view no right-minded Hindoo ought to feel his 
national instincts offended, and his self-respect dimin- 
ished, by allegiance to a foreign rule. ' The regeneration 
of his country must be the dearest object to the heart of 
every enlightened Hindoo, and it must be perfectly evi- 
dent to him that the best mode of attaining this end is 
by striving to raise himself to the level of his rulers. 
What can the most patriotic Hindoo wish for hetter 
than that his country should, until its education as a 
nation is further advanced, continue part of the gpreatest 
and most glorious of empires, under a sovereign of the 
purest Aryan blood ? ' 

The copper coins still current in the North-West 
markets are the damrie and duhbul of the Mahomedans. 
Before the Queen's pice is coined in tenfold quantities, 
it cannot suffice for circulation in these populous pro- 
vinces. Cowries are also current, as in Bengal, but on 
a much more limited scale for their scarcity. The 
cowrie enters into the fraction of Hindoo aiithmetic 
and is not likely to go out of vogue till India becomes a 
thorough bank-note world. The proposed introduction 
of a paper currency, and Menu's payments in panas, will 
make the extremes of two ages meet. 

The little prevalence of idolatry in Hindoostan as 



Less Idolatry in Hindoostan than in Bengal, 375 

compared with Bengal, has already been dwelt upon in 
a preceding page. Large towns have their temples and 
gods. But each village, as in Bengal, has not its 
tutelary Shiva and Shustee, From Allahabad to Myn- 
poree we have not met with one single instance of that 
indi^ensable of a Bengal village — a little round stone 
painted with vermiUion, and placed beneath an aged 
banyan or peepul tree — which acts as the guardian deity 
of a rural community. In one single street of Calcutta, 
there are more images of Krishna and emblems of Shiva, 
than perhaps in the whole length of the Doab — and this 
in Bengal, which is at the intellectual headship of India. 

Travelling like ours may be compared to the run of 
a horse in a race. Given the distance, and given the 
time — ^to finish the career. There is no time to lose — 
no time to look about leisurely — no time to pick up any 
statistics — no time to inquire into the state of education, 
the prevalence of crime, or the nature of diseases pecu- 
liar to these provinces — ^no time to visit any of the big 
folks of the land, and sound their opinions — and no time 
to view the hut of a peasant, and hear his domestic tale. 
All these the world now cares to read and know. But 
on — on we go in a breathless haste, keeping our eyes 
fixed only upon the goal, and leaving unfulfilled the 
legitimate duties of a traveller. Ours is seeing 'the 
world from a gig.' 

Saw two Europeans on their way to Agra. They 
were travelling by an European dawk, and soon out- 
stripped us to justify how everything native stands at a 
discount. Only three short years ago, how beset were 



37^ Travels of a Hindoo. 



these roads for such a journey to one of their race. 
Scouring bands of ruffians then marched and counter- 
marched in all directions to discover the lurking-places 
of fugitive Englishmen, and destroy every one of them 
from the face of the land. The white-skin was under 
proscription, and all the Goralogiies who escaped from 
an immediate massacre sought safety in flight and con- 
cealment. Few there were who did not change their 
clothes, and borrowing rustic attire disguise themselves 
to belie their race and country. Many had painted 
their faces to pass off as beggars or porters with baskets 
on their heads. Turned adrift all of a sudden, the for- 
lorn Sahebs, in most instances poor stragg-lers left to 
help themselves, knew not whither to go in a coun- 
try up against them. They proceeded on foot, shunning 
all road-side towns and villages, and creeping along 
hedges and across ploughed fields, to avoid raising a 
hue and cry after them. The tall jungle grass, the 
ravine, the ditch, and the topes of mango trees, were 
the coverts in which they skulked alone by day and 
night. Ladies are known to have braved fording the 
Jumna at chin-deep water. Few of the fug'itives had 
any food for two or three days together. Those who 
found a refuge passed weeks and months in the cabins 
of peasants, in cow-sheds, fowl-houses, and hay-stacks 
— living all the while upon the chappaties and lentil- 
porridge of the villagers. Long shall the tales of their 
adventures be told by the Christmas fires of many an 
English household. But the state of things has been 
altered. The Briton is once more master of the land 



J 



\ 



A Jain Temple and Durmshala, 377 

and drives fearlessly through hundreds of miles of a 
disarmed and peaceful country. Indeed, so complete is 
the restoration to tranquillity that * a purse of gold 
might be exposed on the highway, and no one would 
touch it.' This shows how a reaction is always propor- 
tioned to the fierceness of an outbreak, as well in the 
moral as in the physical world. Greater also is the 
elasticity of human society, the more it has advanced in 
civilization. 

To proceed through a dreary tract there very oppor- 
tunely occur in it a Jain temple and Durmshala — 
strongly reminding of such institutions in the days of 
Asoca. The garden and well in the midst of an arid 
plain are welcome to the sunburnt and weary traveller. 
The great depth of the well indicates the elevation of 
the country above the sea. The garden is intersected 
by little pucka nullahs or aqueducts to carry off water 
for distribution throughout the orchard. Nothing re- 
freshed us so much as a bath in the cool waters of the 
well, coming as they were from the deep bowels of the 
earth. 

But the way to Agra seems endless and eternal. 
The same mango topes, the same processions of loaded 
carts, and the same naked mud-villages, continue to 
afflict with their unvaried prospect, and growing into a 
sore monotony make the journey provokingly tedious 
and wearisome. In our impatience, we longed and 
panted for Agra, as does the thirsty traveller in a sandy 
desert for an oasis. Often did we inquire from passen- 
gers on the road to make the assurance of our arrival 



378 Travels of a Hindoo, 



there doubly sure — and an answer in the affirmative 
alone helped to keep up our spirits. The confines of 
the district were at length gained, and before long 
was read the *Agra Police Thana' written in broad 
capitals upon a signboard put up at the entrance of 
Ferozabad, 

The Chandwar of the twelfth century is Ferozabad 
of the nineteenth. Stop, traveller ! * Thy tread here is 
upon an empire's dust/ The fields that you see spread 
around you form the memorable battle-ground on which 
was decided the contest between the Hindoo and Mus- 
sulman for the sovereignty of India. Six hundred and 
sixty-six years ago, the Hindoo banner waved here for 
the last time, and the sun went down witnessing the 
last day of Hindoo independence. Here fell the heroes 
Alha and Udal — two brothers, whose memory is still 
preserved * in the songs and traditions of the people 
amongst the Chandals of Mahoba and the Rahtores 
and Chandals of the Doab.'* It was here that the last 
Hindoo Rajah, Jychand of Kanouge, met with the due 
of his treachery from Mohamed Ghori ; and acting the 
finale of the great Hindoo drama, closed his career by 
a traitor's leap into the Ganges. 

No importance is now possessed by Ferozabad — 
there is no trace of the wall by which it was formerly 
surrounded. The present inhabitants dweU in humble 
cottages. Baber more than once alludes to this place 
under its ancient name. There exists no clue to trace 

* Their disappearance in the forest of Kajalihan, or the Kajali 
jungle, is a myth. 



Ferozabad. 379 



the origin of its present denomination. The decayed 
mosques and tombs scattered about the spot, speak 
more of the Moslem than of the Hindoo. 

Out of Ferozabad, the Grand Trunk Road is shaded 
on either hand by rows of beautiful neem trees, forming 
a fitting royal road towards the seat of royalty. The 
more we now proceeded along, the more did the Islam- 
ite peep out from every side of the country. 

The Goachee Phaeton was driving fast the car in 
heaven towards the west, and we in the nether world 
emulated his example. Our way lay through a country 
that was little inhabited. Observed a herd of wild 
antelopes browsing almost by the road- side. Pushed 
on without rest or respite to reach Agra before sunset. 
Near Mahmedabad, the road takes a bend to avoid a 
large piece of shallow water, in the midst of which is 
seen to stand a beautiful but imknown mausoleum, 
connected with the main land by a causeway of many 
arches. The architecture is too superior to be of rural 
hands, and evidently announced the proximity of the 
metropolis. But journeying on without end, tantalized 
hope grew fainter and fainter, as night began to set in, 
and still there lay before us several miles of ground. 
Giving up the chase in despair, and slackening our pace, 
we left the horse to wend slowly on his way. The 
broad full moon rose in the East with a brightness that 
is witnessed only on a clear autumn evening in Bengal. 
In a little time, several straggling lights in the distance 
caught our eye. The far-off hum of men also came, softly 
wafted on the air, to break in upon the stillness of the 



380 Travels of a Hindoo. 



night. On arrival at the spot, the lights were found to 
have proceeded from several lamps hung in the front of 
a row of confectionery shops making a little bazar. In- 
deed, the grocers and victuallers of a place are some- 
times the best exponents of its character to a stranger. 
* Tell me,' says Lord Chesterfield, * the name of your 
company, and I will tell you who you are.' In the 
same manner — * tell me the kind of food you live upon, 
and I will tell you how you fare.' The first favourable 
or unfavourable inference of a people's condition may 
safely be drawn by a stranger from their victualling 
shops. The bazar is a great field of statistics to found 
upon them the most important conclusions. Had there 
been nobody to tell us the fact of our having* gained 
the purlieus of imperial Agra, it would have transpired 
of itself from the unmistakable shops that can belong 
only to an imperial city. * If nothing else gave a superior- 
ity to Hindoostan over Bengal, its cheap and excellent 
viands would certainly do so,' remarked our worthy 
tradesman, who has a notable fondness for all kinds of 
saccharine food. 

The immediate approach to Agra lies through a 
rugged ground broken into deep ravines — the abode of 
wolves. The Jumna still lay concealed from the view. 
But before long, that bright and tranquil stream was 
caught sight of flowing beneath a high precipitous bank 
with an inaudible murmur. The bosom of the river was 
spanned by a bridge of boats from shore to sbore. The 
bridge is lighted up after night-fall by lamp-posts at 
intervals. It is guarded by police. Once every dav 



Night Scene on the Jumna, 381 

it is opened for the passage of the trading crafts up- 
wards and downwards. The breach thus daily made is 
daily repaired. But to put our patience to a sore trial, 
it happened to be left open by an unlucky turn out on 
the very night of our arrival, and proving a bar to our 
driving right on into the city, obliged us to put up 
with the inconvenience of passing the night in our 
gharries on the bridge. To make the best of our time 
under the circumstance, we fell to a musing on the 
scene before us. On our left lay moored many a boat, 
the tall masts of which stood like gaunt shadowy figures 
in the air. From their decks gleamed the fitful fires 
of the cooking dandees. The river was one flood of 
moon-lit glory. Beyond rose the dark outlines of the 
city — 'the pulse of life stood still there.' 



38a 



CHAPTER VIII. 

October 31s^. — At the break of day, the evil genius 
of reality dispelled the nocturnal illusion, and the tell- 
tale sun disclosed things in their actual condition. 
The clear blue Jumna, the classic stream of love and 
song, scarcely meandered its course of sluggish waters 
through sandbanks spreading most unpoetic wastes to 
the view. The bridge was not the self-same bridge of 
life-sized elephants of hollow lead, which had been 
flung across the stream in the days of Akber. Deck- 
ing the river, there were no gay royal barges trinuned 
with flags and pennons waving in the air. Far inland 
in these shallow waters, there can ever hope to ply only 
little pleasure- steamers drawing two feet water. The 
wretched shipping of Agra at once indicates its fallen 
greatness, its decayed trade, and its diminished opu- 
lence. The pontoon, however, afibrds a scene of great 
liveliness. There jog on loaded donkeys, horses, camels, 
and waggons ; ekas and dawk-gharries ; tiirbaned 
Hindoostanees on foot and on horse, garment- wearing 
Hindoostanee women, and merchants, travellers and 
fakirs — all in a continuous stream and motley pro- 
cession. 



I 



Banks of the Jumna^ — a Legend. 383 

The sight of a Jumna sandbank recalls to mind the 
birthplace of Yyas. To verify the legend, the mists, 
too, hung upon the river — though not at the call of a 
Hindoo Rishi. But there was no ferry, nor any youth- 
ful maid to helm you to the other side. This is not 
the age of romance, but that of the Penal Code — when 
a love-adventure like that of Parasara is rape, and when 
females cannot choose to grant favours of a tender kind 
without scandal in society. The scene of that memor- 
able amour is not exactly known — whether near Allah- 
abad, Muttra, or Hastinapoor. Agra was then unknown, 
and Indraprastha not yet founded. The hunting ex- 
cursion of Santanu proves the country to have been 
woody, in which was the abode of the King of the 
Fishermen. But no opinion can be hazarded as to even 
the probable site of the classic spot of Vyas' birth — 
whether along the course of Upper or Lower Jumna. '' 
In ancient Greece, seven cities contended for the birth- 
place of Homer. In ancient India, not one man cared 
to remember the spot where Yyas was bom. The 
Aryan Greek decidedly surpassed the Aryan Hindoo in 
patriotic sentimentalism. In our age^ the people along 
the banks of the Jumna are non-fish-eaters. But in 
the age of Vyas, the fishermen in these provinces were 
so large and powerful a class as to have had a king of 
their own. Perhaps, they were an aboriginal tribe — 
or that the pre-Buddhist Hindoos did not follow the 
tenet of tenderness to animal life. 

Abul Fazil, the great politician of Mogul history 
and minister of Akber, was bom on this side of the 



384 Travels of a Hindoo, 



Jumna. His father kept here a school of law and di- 
vinity. Feizi also lies buried in some unknown spot 
on this side. He was the first Mussulman to apply 
himself to a study of the Hindoo Shasters, by passing 
ofiF as a Brahmin lad on a Pundit of Benares, and living 
under his roof. He had a great taste for books, and 
left behind him the most magnificent private library in 
that age. It consisted of 4060 books, carefully cor- 
rected and well-bound, on poetry and literature, moral 
and physical sciences, and theology. Akber, Abul Fa- 
zil, and Feizi are the three best characters in the whole 
range of Moslem history. 

Looked round for the Goolfushun of Baber — the 
famous garden in which that prince had first tried to 
acclimatize the ananas (pine-apple) and the sandal-tree 
in the valley of the Doab. Very probably, the Charbagh 
of Baber afterwards became the Ramhagh of Akber's 
courtiers, who preferred a residence on the cool and 
quiet banks of the Jumna, to the eternal bustle and 
noise of an imperial city. The left bank in that age 
had been inhabited by a large population, and had 
formed nearly one-third of the city, which extended 
over a space twenty-six miles in circumference. 

Ascended a high pile of rubbish — the remains no 
doubt of some ancient building — to survey the suburbs. 
On the right opened upon us the magnificent mausoleum 
of the Etmad-ud-Dowla. Two or three miles distant 
towards the south-west, rose in view the matchless Taj 
— the first sight of which was a sufficient recompense 
for all the toils of our long journey. Through the misty 






Agra, — the Etmad-iid-Dowla. 385 

air, the dome fixed in stately height rose against the 
sky as if bigger than its actual dimensions. 

Opinions differ as to the architectural merits of the 
Etmad'Ud'Doida, Jacquemont remarks it to be * in 
execrable taste/ — while Sleeman says it is * an exceed- 
ingly beautiful building/ The majority of travellers 
concur in the latter opinion. In the tomb of the 
Etmad-ud-Dowla lie the remains of Chaja Aias, the 
father of the celebrated Noor Jehan. He was a Persian 
foreigner, who rose by his own abilities as well as by 
the influence of his daughter to be the high treasurer of 
the realm. India was then the land for adventurers — 
it has now become the land in which honour and emolu- 
ment must be sought through office. The Etmad-ud- 
Dowla stands near the garden of Eambagh. The valu- 
able stones of the mosaic work have been picked out 
and stolen. In 1773 the fort and city of Agra had 
been recovered from the Jats by Nujeeb Khan, under 
an understanding that he was to retain one half of the 
territory he might conquer, and resign the other half to 
the Emperor. It was then that the building and gar- 
den of the Etmud-ud-Dowla had been given away by 
Nujeeb Khan to one of his nephews, in whose family 
the mausoleum remained for sixty years, when it went 
to the hammer by a decree of the Civil Court, to pay 
the debt of its then proprietor. 

To be in Agra is to find yourself in the once imperial 

capital of the 'Great Mogul' of Sir Thomas Roe, of 

Terry, of Tavernier, of Mandelsloe — in fact, of all the 

nations of Christendom in the seventeenth century : — 
VOL. I. . 25 



386 Travels of a Hindoo, 

tlie Great Mogul then in liis veritableness, and not in 
effigy, with which all card-players are more or les8 
familiar. Though fallen from its high estate, still there 
is enough to stare at, observe, and admire in this ancient 
metropolis. The Quay along the left has handsome 
stone ghauts. To this day, as in Fitch's time, ' do the 
wives and daughters of the Hindoos come by ten, 
twenty, and thirty together, to the water-side to wash 
themselves, and to use their ceremonies.' But no more 
are there any ' naked beggars, with beards of enormous 
growth, hair hanging more than half down the body, 
and nails two inches long.' 

The Fort, eighty feet high, towers in view as one 
enters the city. The enormous pile has rather the ap- 
pearance of a castellated town than of a single palace. 
The first impression of it is overwhelming — and the 
mind lost in its own reflections has no time for the ex- 
amination of details. In the words of Abul Fazil — 
*IIis Majesty has erected a fort of red stone, the like of 
which no traveller has ever beheld.' But British sol- 
diers now sit with dangling feet on the ramparts of the 
far-famed citadel of Akber, — complacently whiflBng 
away puffs of smoke from their meerschaums. 

The open space between the quay and the fort was 
the Circus Maximus of the Emperors. It is overlooked 
by a balcony from which they probably witnessed the 
animal fights which amused the generations of that day. 
The gate on this side was then called, to quote William 
Finch, * the Darsan Darwaza, or Gate of Sights, leading 
to a fair court, extending along the river, where the 



^gra, — the Fort, — the ^ Gate of Sights.^ 387 

King (Jehangeer) looks out every morning at sun- 
rising/ The nobles stood on a kind of scaffold. The 
King ' came there every day (except Sunday) at noon 
to see the Tamasha or fighting with elephants, lions, 
and buffaloes, and killing of deer by leopards. Tuesdays 
are peculiarly the days of blood, both for fighting beasts 
and killing men, as on that day the King sits in judg- 
ment, and sees it put in execution.' Great portion of 
this tract is now covered with piles of rubbish and 
bricks, presenting a sad spectacle of ruin. It was full 
of houses, which had to be levelled down to prevent 
their falling into the hands of the rebels. Only one 
solitary house stands uninjured in the melancholy scene 
— it is the premises of the well-known Lalla Joteepro- 
saud, spared out of regard for his valuable services to 
the State. The Lalla's house — within hail of the fort — 
is a fitting abode for the Purveyor- General of the Indian 
Army. 

In the Gate of Sights, there was to have been seen 
of yore * carved in stone two elephants with their riders, 
of exquisite worknyinship' — the statues erected by Akber 
to the memory of Jeimiil and Pntto, two Rajpoot heroes 
of Chitore. 

Gadding in the streets of Agra, under an eight o'clock 
sun, even in October is not very agreeable. The heat 
is enough to incline a man to get himself within-doors. 
In quest of Lallah M — 's house, we happened to accost 
a spare-looking but fair-complexioned and decently clad 
Hindoostanee gentleman, coming out of a narrow alley, 
followed by his servants. To our great good luck he 



388 Travels of a Hindoo, 

turned out to be a particular friend of the very individual 
whom we wanted. No sooner had reference been made 
to him, and we had announced ourselves as travellers 
from Calcutta, than he poKtely offered us the cordial 
welcome of Young Hindoostan to Toung Bengal, Be- 
tween the public mind of Hindoostan and the public 
mind of Bengal, there has existed for several centuries 
a great gulf. To bridge that gulf the epoch has arrived. 
Under the auspices of a liberal education, and the growth 
of enlightened sentiments, races of one parentage, but 
separated from each other by hereditary prejudices of 
fifty or more generations, and forming an ill-cemented 
mass of petty nationalities, are to acknowledge one 
common brotherhood, and form one great welded nation 
throughout the empire. 

The Lallah, in. Hindoostan, is the same that the 
Kayust is in Bengal. * If other employments failed a 
Sudra,' says Menu, ' he should subsist by writing.' This 
has given an hereditary excellence in caligraphy, which 
has enabled the Kayust to rival the Brahmin. The 
enlightened of his brotherhood, often monopolizing all 
public business, at last rose to the importance of the 
official class in Hindoo society, and acquired that ad- 
ministrative experience which so greatly distinguishes 
a Kayust from the rest of his nation. But the Lallah 
in Hindoostan has few of those nation -splitting preju- 
dices about caste, in which a Kayust of Beno-al is so 
prone to indulge to disguise the mortification for his 
loss of status. The old story of the Brahmin from the 
mouth, the Khetrya from the arms, the Valsa from the 



The Lallah and the Kayust, 389 

waist, and the Siidra from the feet of Brahma, is well 
known. But there was a certain Kayust Baboo who 
undertook to revise the Code of Menu, and assigned to 
his class a birth from the Kaya or body of Brahma. 
* Then also/ did a Brahmin curtly reply, ' are the 
Harees from the har (bones), and the Podhs from the 
postenors of Brahma ? * The pointed anecdote goes far to 
explain the character of the orthodox Kayust in Bengal. 
The Lallah, our host, is an Income-Tax Assessor. 
He has a press and edits an Oordoo paper. He also 
maintains a school at his own private expense. The 
other day his institution was highly spoken of by the 
first man of this city. The Lallah, our friend, is a Sub- 
Assistant Surgeon in the Thomason Hospital. He is a 
native of Delhi, and has passed himself as a graduate of 
the Calcutta Medical College, to benefit his countrymen 
by the use of the English lancet and the English quinine 
— to help them out from the hands of Lokeman Hakeem. 
It would be a sin of omission not to do justice to the 
dinner of the Lallahs. As Macaulay is said to have re- 
marked, that * if he were to forget everything of India, 
he could never forget Captain Richardson's reading of 
Shakspeare' — so if we were to forget everything of 
Hindoostan, we could never forget the sumptuous dinner 
of the Lallahs. In comparing Hindoostanec and Ben- 
galee cookery, the balance is decidedly in favour of the 
former. The simplest food of the Hindoostanec — 
keecheery — is, or at least was, the richest dish of the 
Bengalee. Meat is sold here in the native bazars, and 
the Hindoo women of Agra do not object to cook the 



390 Travels of a Hindoo. 

meat, which the Hindoo women of Calcutta do not allow 
to pass the threshold of their doors. The dinner was 
served on a divan in the Mahomedan style. It would 
be a mistake to suppose this as a common feature in the 
living of the Hindoos of Agra. The strict mode of 
Hindoo eating is on the floor — ^the rich sometimes paint- 
ing it, in the olden times. But living in a Mahomedan 
town, the Hindoo population of Agra is tainted with 
many 3Iahomedanisjm. Their food has lost its Hindoo 
simplicity, and assumed the sumptuousness of Maho- 
medan cookery. From being Mahomedanized, our man- 
ners are in a fair way of being Anglicized. In one or 
two generations more it would be difiieult to trace any 
of the original features in our national character. 

Not alone in point of eating, but also in dressing, 
and in politeness, do the North- Westerns beat ns. As 
far as the outward air of good breeding goes, almost 
every Agra-wallah is well-bred. The decorum of his 
appearance, and the propriety of his speech, indicate the 
civilized life that is spent in a metropolis. The local 
dialect is the polished Oordoo, in which one can hardly 
detect a vulgarism. Not a little do the Agra- wallahs 
pride themselves in their refinements of an ancient 
metropolitan citizenship. Hence the contemplated re- 
moval of the Presidency to Allahabad has seriously 
alarmed them, as likely to deprive them of their lonff- 
enjoyed honours, to hinder their advance in inteUioence 
and wealth, and to do away with their proud name of 
citizens. From being the capital of the North- West 



The Newspaper Press, — Young Hindoostan, 391 

Agra is to dwindle into a second-rate or third-rate city, 
and from refined citizens they will have to be merged 
into the rank of a provincial gentry. 

It was at the house of our host that we happened 
after many days to take up the latest number of the 
Delhi Gazette y and read the latest telegram from England. 
The newspaper- reading public of Agra is daily increasing 
in number. The native press already counts four papers 
in Oordoo — all weeklys. As yet these infant news- 
papers are 'mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.' 
In time they are expected to become powerful organs — 
heard across the ocean. The press and the platform are 
that for which England is the great benefactress of India. 
It is to be hoped that the elite of Hindoostan should be 
wisely engaged more in defending the true interests of 
their country, than in parrying arms with a redoubtable 
foe. As to one who has studied the history of the Press 
in India, how it has disappointed him to find it exhibit 
chiefly the barking warfare between an Indian Pariah 
and an English Bull-dog.* 

The parlour of our host is by itself a sufiicient com- 
mentary on the taste and habits of Young Hindoostan. 
It looks out upon a little plot, laid out in flower-beds. 
The walls of the room are not hung with the miniatures 
of the sensualist Jehangeer or the Nemazee Aurungzebe, 
but pictures of an * English Cottage Scene ^ or * Fox- 

* It is with unfeigned pleasure that the natives now mark a 
generous and kindly change in the tone of the most authoritative 
paper on this side of India,— a tone of right-mindedness that should 
guide the pen of those who have it in their hands. 



392 Travels of a Hindoo, 

hunting Race.' There are, too, an English map of the 
world, and an Oordoo map of India. Upon a bracket 
against the wall ticked away the huge pendulum of a 
Sam Slick. Facing it stood a cast of Sir Walter Scott. 
The book- shelf made a choice little Kbrary, to which 
our lawyer added a copy of 'Thornton's Gazetteer.' 
Chairs and sofas lay in the room — but to recline against 
a cushion on the divan can never be out of vogue 
amongst the sons of a sunny land. 

To our kind Hindoostanee friends we were obliged 
for procuring a carriage and pair to take us through 
the town. First and foremost laj'- the Fort in our way. 
From its vastness, its prominence, and its grandeur, the 
structure looks Kke the reality of a magnificent castle 
in an Eastern tale. Though fully three hundred years 
old, it has yet all the freshness of a new-built architect- 
ure. The exterior coating of stone gives it an imposing 
air of impregnability. 

Here and there it has been partially modernized, 
but on the whole it still retains greatly the originality 
of its appearance. The Fort of Agra derives all its 
strength from art ; nothing from nature. It was cer- 
tainly impregnable in the days of archery. But it can 
hardly stand for a couple of hours against modern gun- 
nery. Military architecture must keep pace with the 
improvement of military weapons. High towers, and 
battlements, and massive walls, characterized the forti- 
fications of the ancients. Trenches, mounds, ravelins, 
and bastions constitute the defensive works of the mo- 
derns. In daj's of old, muscles fought against muscles. 



The Fort of Agra. 393 

Now, the fight of mind against mind lias to decide the 
fate of a battle. In the age of Akber, this citadel 
defied any number of sword-fighting Patans, or lance- 
bearing Rajpoot chivalry. But in this age science 
must defend against what science attacks. 

The outer ditch and rampart formerly surrounding 
the fort have disappeared. The first has been filled up 
to form a part of the great pathway which bisects the 
city. The inner moat, thirty feet wide, and paved 
with freestone, still exists. The great height of the 
inner rampart defies all escalade. 

To give access to the interior, the citadel has two 
stupendous gates well maintaining a relative propor- 
tion to the vast dimensions of the fortress. The one 
by which we made our entry was originally called the 
Bokhara Gate, But circumstances of a subsequent 
date changed this name into Umra Sing Ka fatuck, 
from a chief of celebrity in the Rajpoot annals. Umra 
had been born the heir-apparent to the throne of Mar- 
war. But excluded from succession by his father, he 
had repaired to the court of Shah Jehan, and been em- 
ployed as a munsubdar in the imperial army. He had 
on one occasion absented himself from the court for a 
fortnight, spending the time in his favourite diversion 
of hunting. The Emperor reprimanded him for keep- 
ing away from his duties, and imposed a fine which 
the paymaster-general was sent to realize. Umra re- 
fused payment, on which a peremptory mandate was 
issued for his attendance at the court. He obeyed the 
call. The Emperor sat in full durbar surrounded by a 



394 Travels of a Hindoo. 



brilliant aristocracy. But unceremoniously passing by 
all the Omrahs, Umra proceeded towards the king, and 
plunged a dagger into the heart of the paymaster-gen- 
eral. The next blow was aimed at the king, who aban- 
doned his throne, and fled to the inner apartments. 
All was uproar and confusion. Umra continued the 
work of death, indifferent upon whom his blows fell. 
Five Mogul chiefs of eminence died on the spot. On 
Umra's expiring from a mortal wound inflicted by his 
brother-in-law, his retainers commenced a fresh camaee 
within the Loll Killah or the Palace of Red Freestone. 
The faithful band was overpowered and cut to pieces. 
Umra's wife, a princess of Boondi, came in person to 
carry away the dead body of her lord. This tragic 
event could not fail to have produced a terrible sensa- 
tion in the court of that day. The gallantry which 
had set at defiance the authority of the potentate of the 
Empire, had become the subject of an universal admir- 
ation. To commemorate that conspicuous gallantry, the 
Bhokara gate, by which Umra and his followers had 
gained admission, was ordered to be built up and called 
by the name of Umra Singes gate. It was thence- 
forward denounced to be guarded by a huge serpent. 
Under this accursed talac or interdiction it had re- 
mained closed for the long period of 175 years, imtil 
opened in 1809 by a Captain of the Bengal Engineers. 
He was told of the anathema under which the gate lay. 
But regardless of the idle story, the young British cap- 
tain went on with his operations. To his surprise, 
however, as the act of demolition had been completed, 



The Fort of Agra. 395 



there suddenly rushed between his legs a large cobra 
from which he narrowly escaped biting.* 

The European sentry, pacing to and fro beneath the 
overhanging arch of the colossal gateway, seemed dwarfed 
into an automaton by the gigantic proportions surround- 
ing him. The body of the gateway is built of solid mason- 
ry ten feet thick. Flanking its sides are two enormous 
towers, continued inwards in a range of buildings show- 
ing a beautiful succession of alternate niches and small 
arched openings. Surmounting the top is the Nagara- 
khana — whence the State kettle-drum formerly sounded 
its tocsin to the populace of the city. The inscriptions 
of black marble, inlaid in slabs of white marble set in 
the red freestone, are in characters huge enough to be 
in keeping with the immensity of the building. 

In the interior the Fort looks like a city within a 
city. On the 26th July, 1857, during the mutiny, Mr 
Colvin, the late Lieutenant-Governor, took a census of 
all who slept within the Fort. The number counted 
5845 — the population of a respectable township. 

From the height of the Fort is commanded a beau- 
tiful view of the city. The river winds its sinuous 
course like a silvery streak. The boundless expanse of 
corn-fields, woods, and meadows spreads towards the 
distant north. The wilderness of domes, turrets, mina- 
rets, and steeples glitter in the sun — 'the Taj, like a 
presiding genius, rising above them all.' The streets 
intersect each other in various directions. The houses 
of the inhabitants swarm in a clustering mass. Far as 

* Tod's Rajasthan, vol. ii. p. 46. 



39^ Travels of a Hindoo. 



the suburbs, innumerable ruins and tombs are scattered 
over a wide extent. ' In strange contrast to the airy 
proportions and polished structure of the buildings, were 
the great, hea\'y, lumbering boats, creeping doim the 
stream, heaped up with bags of cotton ; all clumsy and 
half-ei\'ilized, carrying the mind back centuries beyond 
the generation that could design and execute the build- 
ings on the banks of the river/ 

The Deicani'khas, or the private council-chamber of 
Akber, overlooks the river from an elevated terrace. 
The rooms appeared to us as models of perfection. The 
interior surface is overiaid with white marble. Of the 
same material are the columns and arches, ornamented 
with carWng. Traces of gilding are yet visible on the 
fillet of the columns. Here did Akber hold his cabinets 
— ^planning schemes for the invasion of Bengal, and the 
conquest of Cashmere. Here Abul Fazil penned the 
state-despatches to the fifteen souhahs of the empire. 
Here Rajah Maun waited for the royal behest to march 
to Cuttack or to Cabul. Here Rajah Toder Mull dis- 
cussed the assessments of revenue with his imperial 
master. From this regal tower, perhaps, did Jehant^eer 
suspend his famous golden chain of jttsficey weighino- 
three quarters of a ton, and measuring one hundred and 
forty guzz in length, with eighty small bells at inter- 
vals, to carrj' up the complaint of the poorest subject 
direct to the royal ear. The last years of Shah Jehan 
were passed here as in a royal cage. In the day of his 
power, the Mahratta sat in this hall exhibiting his pomp 
and state. Nothing can be more affecting than what it 



AgrQy — the Harem, 397 

was and what it is. The sanctity of the place is cer- 
tainly violated by warehousing commissariat stores in 
the vaults below. 

On the open terrace is seen the rarity of a tukht or 
throne of black marble, some twelve feet square by two 
feet high, hewn out entire with the legs from a block. 
Fancy is apt to regard this throne as where Akber sat 
on a sultry night to enjoy the cool of the open air, and 
the moonlight resting upon the river — for he had a soul 
no less for poetry than for politics — exchanging brilKant 
repartees with Rajah Beerbul, or hearing a song from 
Tansen, or holding religious controversies with Padrees, 
Pundits, and Moulvies, to astound them all with his 
latitudinarianism. The tulM has suffered a slight crack 
in one of the corners. There is also a smaller one near 
the staircase leading to the terrace ; the marble in this 
instance is white. 

The vicar in the tale had not a more easy journey 
from the blue bed to the brown, than the Mogul Em- 
peror from his palace to the harem. The most remark- 
able of the female apartments is the Sheesha Mahl, or 
the Hall of Mirrors. Inside the room the walls are 
lined with small-sized mirrors, hiding all masonry from 
the view. In the middle is a beautiful jet d'eau, made 
to gush from an orifice in the mosaic pavements, and to 
fling its delicious coolness throughout the room. To 
distribute the waters there are marble channels on the 
floor, inlaid with a variety of stones. Coming from the 
warm outside air the temperature of the room is felt as 
that of a temperate latitude. The view of the river is 



398 Travels of a Hindoo, 

enjoyed through an exquisite latticed screen of white 
marble. In one place the beautiful screen has been in- 
jured by a cannon-ball bursting in during the siege of 
the British army in 1803. One is apt to enjoy in 
imagination the scene which this magnificent crystal- 
hall presented, when Jodh Baie, or Noor Jehan, or 
Mumtaza Begum, gazed at their reflected images in the 
mirrors, and almost grew enamoured of their own match- 
less beauties. The hall is out of all order now. Time 
has dimmed the lustre of the mirrors. The fountain is 
made to play only in honour of visitors. The thin, small 
glasses betray the imperfection of the manufacture in 
that age. 

It requires repeated visits to go leisurely through 
all the curiosities of the Fort. As we passed by the 
other apartments of -the Zenana, we thought of the 
creatures who formerly lingered here in a splendid 
cage, and had been kept as it were in a menagerie for 
divers specimens of female ethnology ; and who, lolling 
in luxury, sighed for the humblest lot and freedom. 
The seraglio of Akber contained 5000 women — it was a 
rich and varied garden, exhibiting the choicest flowers 
of beauty culled and collected from Eajasthan, Cash- 
mere, Cabul, Iran, and Toorkistan. But by no means 
does the enclosure of the harem appear to be so laro-e 
as to have had ^ a separate room for each of the inmates.' 
Hereabouts also used to be held those annual fairs of 
the KoosrooZy which were decidedly an anticipation of 
the Fancy fairs of the nineteenth century. In those 
fairs, the wives and daughters of the nobles, Mogul as 



Annual Fairs , — Tale of Akber, 399 

well as Rajpoot, assembled and exposed for sale their 
artistic wares ; and the Emperor stalked forth in dis- 
guise like a royal wizard lured by the scent of female flesh 
and blood. On * one of these celebrations of Koosrooz, 
the monarch of the Moguls was struck with the beauty 
of the daughter of Mewar, and he singled her out from 
amidst the united fair of Hind as the object of his pas- 
sion. It is not improbable that an ungenerous feeling 
united with that already impure to despoil the Sesodias 
of their honour, through a princess of their house under 
the protection of the sovereign. On retiring from the 
fair, she found herself entangled amidst the labyrinth 
of apartments by which egress was purposely ordained, 
when Akber stood before her ; but instead of ac- 
quiescence, she drew a poniard from her corset, and 
held it to his breast, dictating, and making him re- 
peat the oath of renunciation of the infamy to all her 
race.^ 

Though their Mogul Majesties were pleased to re-, 
duce the high-born ladies of the land to a titled strumpet- 
ocracy, they could not brook, however, that any of their 
own ladies should be guilty of a criminal familiarity. 
But flesh and blood sometimes rebelled, and a lady, 
happening to have her head turned perhaps by the 
Kifahi Kuslum Nanah* and mourning herself as 

* The ' Kitabi Kooslum Nanah ' is the work of a conclave of seven 
learned ladies of Persia on the rights of woman. According to these 
ladies there are three classes of husbands in the world : — 1. A proper 
man. 2. Half a man. And 3. A Hupul-pupla. If the wife of the 
last man absents herself from his house, even for ten days and nights, 
he must not, on her return, ask where she has been ; and if he sees a 
stranger in the house, he must not ask who it is, or what he wants. 



400 Travels of a Hindoo. 

* Confined to one dull spot, 
To one dull husband all tiie year,' 

dared to break out in vagaries against his hupul-pupla 
Majesty. In such a case, there is a dark- vaulted cham- 
ber, that may be seen to this day, in which the ill- 
starred creature was quietly disposed of, to conceal from 
publicity the shame of the royal household. ^ Leaving 
the Zenana, we descended to a large open court, where a 
low flight of steps led up to the Emperor's apartments ; 
beneath the steps is a low, ominous looking doorway, 
entering which we were on the top of a dark winding 
staircase, leading to the tai-khana, a set of caverns, or 
rather catacombs, that honeycomb the ground be- 
neath the palace : those chambers opening on the river 
were airy and pleasant, of a comfortable warmth this 
cold morning, and of course proportionably cool in the 
hot weather ; but the interior cells seemed a formidable 
complication of dark vaults, passages, and steps. We 
were lighted by a torch through some of these recesses, 
and to one of especial interest leading to the Phanseghur, 
Turning to the right, a few yards of narrow, winding 
passage between dead walls, brought us to the end of a 
nil de sac, where the only opening was a hole, broken 
in the left-hand wall, just large enough to squeeze 
through. The light and noise accompanying our ap- 
proach disturbed hosts of bats and birds that flapped 
and wheeled about our heads. Our guide squeezed first 
through the breach, and stood, waving his torch over a 
deep chasm, like a huge dry well, across which ran a 
strong beam of wood, dangling with ropes. There was 



Agra, — the Dewanni-aum, 401 

a most offensive stench from the pit ; I looked down, 
but there was not light enough to see the bottom, and 
I was glad to make my escape from the odours and ver- 
min of the place. The tale I heard, in explanation of 
this mysterious vault, is, that for years the "passage 
leading to nothing'' had been a puzzle to those who 
visited the tai-khanas. At last some remarked that the 
wall to the left hand sounded hollow when struck, and 
this discovery was followed up by Sir Charles Metcalfe, 
I think, who broke the hole already mentioned, and 
found the formidable pit I have described : to the beam 
that traverses it were hanging the remains of human 
skeletons, which the learned pronounced to be those of 
females. Putting all circumstances together, this pit 
was supposed to be the place where the obnoxious ladies 
of the Harem were disposed of, — a " cleanlier riddance " 
of them, their wrongs and crimes, than the Turkish 
plan of sewing them in sacks, conveniently near as the 
Jumna flows to the palace of Agra.' 

To the Deicanni-aum, or the hall of public audience, 
which is in an open space, capable of holding several 
throngs of people that daily crowded it in the times of 
the Mogul emperors. This is one of the largest halls 
to be seen in India, being 180 feet long by 60 broad. 
The structure is at once noble and simple, but its airy 
and lightsome character has been taken away by walling 
up the open arches with windows. In the interior the 
great hall is supported by graceful pillars and arches of 
white marble, all exhibiting the highest polish. Hej 
is still to be seen the throne on which Akber 

VOL. I. 26 J^ 




402 Travels of a Hindoo. 

in durbar, surrounded by his Omrahs and Munsubdars, 
to dispense justice to his subjects, and to receive the 
ambassadors and envoys of foreign monarchs. The 
marble slab, on which the secretaries stood to present 
petitions and receive commands, also exists. In those 
days this great hall was decorated with rich, crimson 
awnings and tapestries. The * seat royal ' was elevated 
and surrounded by two successive railings — the inner- 
most space forming the scene of honour, which was 
occupied by the ambassadors and the officers of state 
* wearing high heron plumes and sparkling with dia- 
monds like the firmament,' and altogether making a 
dazzling appearance that made Sir Thomas Roe declare 
it to have been * one of the greatest rarities and mag- 
nificences ' he ever saw. The throne, as described bv 
Terry (Sir Thomas Roe's chaplain), * had a canopy of 
pure gold, the steps plated with silver, and ornamented 
with five silver lions spangled with jewels.' * But in 
the midst of all this splendour, Akber always ' appeared 
with as much simplicity as dignity in a plain dress.' 
Purchase, also another European eye-witness, says, that 
Akber was so aflJable that *he stood or sat below the 
throne to administer justice.' The splendid marble hall 
of the Deicanni-aum, which has witnessed so many splen- 
did durbars and pageants — in which were received am- 
bassadors, * from near the setting sun, from a great city 
of infidels, called London, where reigned a woman, who 
had given to an association of merchants the exclusive 

* Jehangeer gives a fuller description of this throne in his auto- 
biography. 



The Marble Hall, — the Somnaiith Gates, 403 



privilege of freighting ships from her dominions to the 
Indian Seas ' — the self-same hall is now an armoury of 
the Lieutenants of another Woman, reigning in the 
present day at that identical city of London. Instead 
of embroidered awnings and screens, the hall is now 
decorated with trophies of Chinese flags waving from 
its gracefid columns. The famous Somnauth Gates, which 
once made so much bruit without any fruit, are seen 
here to be quietly laid up in a corner of the hall. The 
gates, eleven feet long by nine broad, verify Ferishta's 
account of Somnauth to have been five yards high. The 
beautiful arabesques carved on the marble, attest to the 
taste of Mahmud, acquired from the Hindoo architect- 
ure of ante-Mahomedan India, and the Cufic characters 
on the borders record his triumph over Hindoo idolatry. 
From Diu to Ghizni, and from Ghizni back to Agra, is 
the history of Somnauth's migrations up to the present 
day. Not more are fossils proofs of the existence of the 
Mammoth, than these stones are proofs of the existence 
of Somnauth. From having been worshipped by gener- 
ations of Hindoos, they were next trampled imder-foot 
by generations of Mussulmans. The stones formed the 
threshold of Mahmud' s mosque of the ' Celestial Bride ^ 
— ^in its age, the wonder of the East. On the recapture 
of Ghizni, General Xott bore the stones away as a 
trophy of trophies. In the eyes of Lord Ellenborough, 
the remains of Somnauth had a political importance 
from which he wanted to make political capital. The 
rescue of their god was proclaimed to the Hindoo nation 
in an ukase, indited from the top of the Himalayas. 



404 Travels of a Hindoo, 

But the idolatrous Hindoos of the nineteenth century- 
made no response to welcome the return of a deity dead 
to them for many a century, and whose name and memory 
had passed away into oblivion. It was his carcass only 
that still survived the wear and tear of 800 years — and 
who does not know the repugnance of a Hindoo towards 
a carcass, whether it be that of a human being or of a 
god? On the one hand, the Somnauth Gates are a 
trophy of British success in Affghanistan ; on the other, 
the Chinese flags are a trophy of British success in the 
mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang. 

Close to the Dewanni-aum lies interred Mr Colvin, 
the late Lieutenant-Governor. The spot is marked by 
a simple tombstone. In the same citadel where Shah 
Jehan ended the last unhappy years of his reign, did 
Mr Colvin end the last unhappy days of his career — 
both havin": been unheeded at their last moments bv 
the outside world, and both owning at last no influence 
over a foot of ground beyond the fort walls. 

The Mootee Musjeed, built entirely of pure white 
marbles, that make the nearest approach to the colour 
and lustre of a pearl, is justly entitled to its name of 
the Pearl Mosque. It is a chaste, simple, and majestic 
structure of an oblong shape, well-proportioned in its 
dimensions, and uniting the most refined elegance with 
an exquisite simplicity. The finely swelling-out domes 
are a triumph of architecture. The topmost gilt cu- 
lisses still retain their original brilliancy. The chaste 
white marbles lend, indeed, a most placid and immacu- 
late appearance. There is a tranquil beauty pervadino* 



yigra, — the Mootee Musjeed. 405 

- 

the whole conception of the building, on which you 
may look for ever without feeling the least satiety. 
The agreeable surprise with which it stands opened on 
the sight of the traveller, rivets his attention in a fer- 
vour of admiration. The marbled design seems to be 
instinct with life — to be endued with a dumb language. 
Running below the outer cornice is an inscription in 
Persian, which, as expounded to us by one of the Mus- 
sulman attendants, records the mosque to have been 
built by Shah Jehan in 1656, for the private chapel of 
the ladies of the harem. The cost is mentioned in 
aahrufees as equivalent to the sum of sixty lacs of 
rupees. 

Fronting the mosque, is a large stone-built square 
basin to hold water for ritual ablutions. The fountain 
in its middle is now dry. Turned back to take our last 
view of the Motee Musjeed. From a distance, it may 
be fancied as seeming to woo us like a Peri from heaven 
— as Tom Moore's Paradise-lost Houri. 

The remarkable bath of Shah Jehan, hollowed out 
of one single block of white marble, and measuring forty 
feet in diameter, is no longer to be seen. This artistic 
curiosity had particularly attracted the notice of Lord 
Hastings, and he had caused it to be taken up for a 
present to George IV. of England, then Prince Regent. 
But it was found to make a too heavy freight for a 
native craft, and the idea of its removal was aban- 
doned. The ultimate fate of this curious bath is un- 
known. 

It would not be quite out of place to allude here to 



4c6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

the favourite drinking-cup of Jeliangeer. A few years 
ago, it had been placed for sale in one of the English 
jewellery shops at Calcutta, by the ex-King of Luck- 
now. The cup had been scooped hollow out of an un- 
commonly large-sized ruby — more than three inches 
long, by as many broad — in the fashion of a goblet, 
with the name of Jehangeer inscribed upon it in golden 
characters. Side by side was placed also a similar but 
smaller cup, with a leg to stand on, which had belonged 
to the great Tamerlane. The drinking-bouts of Je- 
hangeer are matter of historic celebrity, — and the cup 
out of which he was accustomed to drink has a historic 
value in the eyes of posterity, apart from all consider- 
ations of the uncommon size of the ruby. The cup 
having passed into private property, its whereabouts 
cannot be any more traced. If ever a right thing 
ought to have been in its right place, it was the cup 
of Jehangeer in the Calcutta Museum. 

There had been old foundations and walls of an 
earlier fortification, whether Hindoo or Pathan is not 
exactly known, on the site where the present Fort has 
been built. Sleeman is wrong to have stated that * Agra 
was an unpeopled waste,' — when Secunder Lodi had 
resided there for many years, Ibrahim Lodi too, and 
Baber. The date of the present Fort is 1566. Im- 
mense as are the mass of buildings, they were com- 
pleted by Akber in the space only of four short years. 
In the opinion of Lord Lake, the Fort of Agra could not 
have stood against * ten hours' breaching.' 

Not longer back than the year 1832, there was to 



jigra, — a Great Gun. 407 

have been seen at Agra the curiosity of a Great Gun, 
in the bore of which tailors worked to avoid the outside 
sun. The antiquity of this monster had called forth 
various opinions. There were some who ascribed it to 
the heroes of the Mahabarat. Others, going back still 
further, supposed it to be almost antediluvian — and 
nothing less than a metallified mammoth. This precious 
ordnance — precious it really was, for being composed of 
metals to which the common consent of mankind has 
assigned the epithet precious — had been covered with 
inscriptions in character similar to those on the mono- 
lithic column at Allahabad. Akber had surreptitiously 
got his name inscribed amongst the inscriptions, the 
more to confound posterity with his forgery. Once, the 
imperturbable gravity of the monster had been disturbed 
by floating it on a raft for transportation to Calcutta, 
and thence to England. But loath to depart away from 
its native soil, it chose to go down by its own momentum. 
The unwieldy monster lay on the bank of the Jumna, an 
eye-sore to economy. Before long, it was experiment- 
alized upon by powder, blasted into fragments, and 
then sold ofi' piecemeal — its sequel very much resem- 
bling the fate of an old Andamanese, who being deemed 
useless to live, is cut up and eaten away by his kindred. 
This vandalism is a just subject for the most indignant 
diatribes. Had this magnificent trophy been in exist- 
ence to this day, its Pali or Gupta inscriptions might 
have thrown ample light on the antiquity of cannons 
in the East, and helped *to clear up the mystery of 
those thunders and lightnings, with which, says Philo- 



4o8 Travels of a Hindoo, 

stratus, in the Life of Apollonius Tyanaeus, the Oxy- 
dracae, dwelling between the Hyphasis and Ganges, 
drove back Bacchus and Hercules from India. 

From the Fort to the Taj. The way lies over a 
long level road, making an excellent strand. Our 
flighty ghauts are certainly a great set-off to the beauty 
of our Indian towns and cities. But the great fault of 
all Oriental city-building lies in the omission of strands, 
wide streets, and open squares. The strand of Agra is 
eighty feet wide. It was constructed* by the labour of 
the destitute poor in the famine of 1838. Old masonry 
works, sometimes ten feet thick, falling in the way, had 
to be blasted by powder. One or two of the ancient 
houses may yet be seen — they are quite untenanted. 
The suburbs are rural enough with gardens and or- 
chards, but the quarters of the living poor are as squalid 
as anywhere in an Indian town. 

Got out of the carriage to land in a large cloistered 
serai attached to the Taj. Formerly, travellers coming 
to visit the tomb, were accommodated and entertained 
here at the State expense — charity suiting so well with 
the memory of the dead. Then commences the grand 
quadrangular enclosure of lofty red sandstone walls, 
with turrets at the angles. The quadrangle is from 
east to west nine hundred and sixty-four feet, and from 
north to south three hundred and twenty-nine. The 
principal entrance lies through a tall wide gateway 
beating that of the Fort. As yet, the Taj keeps itself 
unseen, like a coy maid, or is secluded like an Indian 
Zenana from bursting at once on the spectator's ^iew. 



Agra, — the Taj, 409 



The sight is obstructed by the stupendous portal, in 
which nothing is so striking as the yawning arch carried 
up to a lofty height. Slowly, as the gateway is passed, 
does the Taj stand revealed to the eye, through a charm- 
ing vista, with all the graceful majesty of its form, the 
unsullied chasteness of its appearance, and the voiceless 
eloquence of its queenly beauty — 

* Marked with a mild angelic air, 
The rapture of repose that's there ' — 

looking, as it were, typical of that superlative beauty 
which it has been intended to perpetuate — a beauty not 
more fascinating in life than in death. In short, it is 
Mumtaza herself, but living Mumtaza no more. 

The sight of the Taj is an epoch in a man's life — it 
is looked forward to by thousands who admire it in 
description. Nothing can be more grand than the 
spacious square marble terrace from which the mauso- 
leum rises in its unequalled stateliness. More than 
two thousand persons might stand upon the broad 
platform, which expands the mind with its expanse. 
The marbles of the pavement are alternately white and 
yellow, and cut into regular squares. To this day, 
their polish is as fresh as if it had been finished yester- 
day. From the four corners of the terrace, rise four 
tall minarets. Not a little is the eflfect or enchantment 
of the Taj heightened by the choice of its site in a fine 
open tract, overlooking the clear blue stream of the 
Jumna. Immediately below the garden, the river keeps 
water all the year roimd. The temperature of the 
spot is charming. From the hot oven of the city, it is 



41 o Travels of a Hindoo. 

a luxury, indeed, to enjoy the cool genial air of the 
garden or terrace. 

The Taj— alone in its loveliness — exceeds all ex- 
pectations. It never satiates — the more you look at it, 
the more you will discover something new to admire. 
Indeea, much attention has been paid to preserve that 
relative proportion of all the parts in which consists 
the principal skill in architecture. To give an example 
— [though a very trite one — the topmost culisses are 
apparent to the eye as two gilt howitzer balls, and yet, 
in reality, they must be of the size of two big spheres 
to appear as such from their great height. The very 
top is crowned by a gilt crescent — the standard of Is- 
lam. The actual mausoleum is octagonal. No descrip- 
tion can give an adequate idea of * the vast and won- 
drous dome ' — with which a traveller would not ' name 
that of St Peter in the same breath.' The slight 
bulbousness is certainly to be condemned, but no com- 
parison can be ever instituted between it and the ill- 
proportioned dome of the Vice- regal Palace at Calcutta. 
From the ground, the structure measures 275 feet in 
height. It is, therefore, not only the loftiest building 
in the plains of India, but in all the old hemisphere. 
No country in the world can rival the valley of the 
Jumna in the abundance, or greatness, or excellence of 
its architectural curiosities, and above them all stands 
the unequalled Taj — * more like a vision of beauty than 
a reality, a dream in solid, palpable, and permanent 
marble — a thought, an idea, a conception of tenderness, 
a sigh as it were of eternal devotion and heroic love, 



Agra, — the Taj. 41 1 



caught and imbued with such immortality as the earth 
can give.' 

Outside, everything is on a scale that makes up the 
great and grand. In the interior, is witnessed all that is 
light and exquisite in human workmanship. The wreaths 
and tendrils, the foliage and flowers on the walls, 
display almost the delicacy of a supernatural execution. 
The lattices of the windows may be regarded as the 
works of a fairy hand. One is here best convinced of 
how far the pbdurate marble can be made to yield to 
the chisel of man. From some of the flowers being of 
the shape of a tulip, which is foreign to the Indian 
Flora, the Taj is supposed to have been constructed by 
foreign architects. But it would be highly unsatis- 
factory to decide the question merely by this slight 
reference to a point in horticulture. As well may the 
pillars of Asoca, carved upon the top with the honey- 
suckle, be thought the works of Egyptian hands. The 
inscriptions on the walls are homilies from the Koran — 
actual * sermons in stones.' The inlaid characters in 
diamond, and other precious stones, have been all ab- 
stracted away by the pelf- loving Jaut and Mahratta — 
leaving the walls defaced with the hollow marks of the 
chisel. 

There is, indeed, one exception to the harmony of 
proportion in the Taj — rather apparent than real. It 
is the low entrance to the interior — probably to walk 
in with the stooping bow of respectful homage. The 
Moguls built gigantic arches, but preferred low pigeon- 
hole doors, to oblige a man to dwarf himself in ap- 



4^2 Travels of a Hindoo, 

proaching the imperial presence, and to tell against the 
abnormal aristocracy of the hiunan mind. To this may 
be attributed the fashion of low doors all over Hindoo- 
stan. The door of the mausoleum corresponds to a 
hair-breadth exactness with the door of the gateway, 
and the vista through the avenue of cypress shows that 
the Indians were not so ignorant of linear perspective 
as it is supposed. 

Just in the middle of the apartment, underneath the 
great cupola, are the cenotaphs of the royal pair. They 
lie side by side, — of course the Empress on the side 
next to the heart of her lord — the assigned place of 
woman, whether in life or death. Mussulmans sleep 
facing the south ; the Hindoos do it facing the opposite 
direction. The cenotaphs are protected by marble 
screen- works, elegant and delicate beyond description. 

The actual sarcophagi are in the vaults below. The 
two tombs are in one enclosure of marble railing, and 
exactly correspond in position with the cenotaphs above. 
The lustre of their marble vies with the lustre of the 
modern queens-ware glass. A candle-light was held to 
examine the richness and beauty of the flowers on the 
slabs, all set with a tastefulness and variety and nicety 
to which no description can ever do justice. There is 
inlaid on the slab over the Empress a flower of 100 
different stones. The Arabic inscriptions recording her 
virtues are bedecked with the most precious gems, which 
the hand of sacrilege has not dared to pilfer away. Her 
name, * Mumtaza Mahl Ranoo Begum,' and the date of 
her death, 1631, are read on the slab. That of her 



The Story of the Taj, 413 

husband and the date of his death, 1666, are also in- 
scribed upon the other tomb. In one of the passages 
carved on the slab of the queen, there is a deprecation 
to 'defend us from the tribe of the unbelievers' — as 
there is a suppUcation on the tombstone of Shakspeare 
'to forbear to dig his enclosed dust/ The profound 
stillness and 'dim religious light' of the vaulted cham- 
ber, are telling in a high degree. The slightest whisper 
awakens a sound, and * there rolls through the obscure 
vault overhead a murmur like that of the sea on a 
pebbly beach in summer — a low sweet song of praise 
and peace. How an invisible choir takes it up till the 
reverberated echoes swell into the full volume of the 
sound of many voices ; it is as though some congrega- 
tion of the skies were chanting their earnest hymns 
above our heads.' On one side, reposes the monarch 
who sat on the Peacock Throne that surpassed the fabled 
thrones of Solomon or Vicramaditva — ^but whose bones, 
probably calcined into lime by age, would now drop 
away in atoms on exhumation and exposure to the air. 
On the other, sleeps the Begima, who was the ornament 
of womankind in her day. But what has become of the 
great beauty which ' held in blissful captivity' the heart 
of a monarch who could have given it away to thousands 
of her sex — ' from dust she came, and to dust has she 
returned.' Let that dust continue inviolate, and remain 
in its holy repose till the last awful scene of our perish- 
able globe. 

The story of the Taj is, that playing at cards one 
day with the Emperor, Mumtaza Begum happened to 



414 Travels of a Hindoo. 

ask him what he inteniied to do in case he survived her 
death. In a mood of dalliance, the emperor pledged 
his word to build over her remains a tomb which should 
be the admiration of the world, and commemorate her 
name through all ages. The death of the Begum was 
occasioned by her giving birth to a daughter, who is 
said to have been heard crying in the womb by herself 
and her other daughters. Jfo mother, it is believed by 
superstition, has ever been known to survive the birth 
of a child so heard to make the ominous crv, and she 
felt that her end was near. The Emperor, in his anxiety, 
called all the midwives of the city, and all his secret- 
aries of state and privy councillors, to aid in the 
recovery of the Queen. But as had been apprehended, 
the favourite Sultana died in two hours after the birth 
of a princess on the 18th day of July, 1631. On her 
death-bed, she had not forgotten to remind the Emperor 
of the tomb with which he had promised to perpetuate 
her name. True to his word, the tomb was commenced 
immediately. Tavemier says that, to build the Taj 
twenty thousand workmen were employed for 22 years 
in its erection. The brick scaffolding is said to have 
cost as much as the building itself. The marble had 
been presented by the Rajah of Jeypore, and was brought 
from its quarries, a distance of 140 miles, upon wheeled 
carriages. Mumtaza Begum was the daughter of 
Asoph Jah, and the niece of Ifoor Jehan. She had 
been twenty years married to Shah Jehan, and bore him 
a child almost every year. Bernier says, * She was 
that extraordinary beauty of the East, whom the Em- 



The Architect of the Taj, 415 

peror loved so passionately that, it is said, his conjugal 
fidelity was unimpeached while she lived; and when 
she died, he was on the point of death himself.' No 
one that reads of the crimes and sorrows that darkened 
the last years of Shah Jehan's life, but must rejoice 
that his wife was taken away from the evil to come ; 
and that no taint pollutes the tomb ' which stands in 
purity, lustre, and beauty, as unrivalled on earth, as 
the moon in the high heavens/ 

Undoubtedly, the Taj is the highest architectural 
triumph of man. But the Europeans are little inclined 
to give the credit of its execution to the Indians. They 
would fain believe, that a Frenchman of the name of 
Austin de Bordeaux designed and executed the Taj. 
This Frenchman was no apocryphal being. He was a 
man of great talent, who held the office of the first 
nuksha nuvees, or plan-drawer, in the court of Shah 
Jehan, on a salary of one thousand rupees a month, 
with other occasional presents. He was called by the 
natives Oostan Eesau, under which name he stands in 
all the Persian accounts first among the salaried archi- 
tects. He was sent by the Emperor to settle some 
affairs of great importance at Goa, and died at Cochin 
on his way back, leaving a son by a native woman, 
called Mahomed Shureef, who, too, was afterwards em- 
ployed as an architect on a monthly salary of five hun- 
dred rupees. The Taj is not more ascribed to Austin 
de Bordeaux than are its mosaics to Genoese and other 
Italian artists ; — what share remains, then, to be attri- 
buted to the Indian of the soil on which it stands ? It 



41 6 Travels of a Hindoo, 

^ __ 

must be none other than that of having gazed at its 
progress in silent admiration. True, there had abounded, 
in those days, a great many European adventurers in 
the court of the Great Mogul. There were Hawkins, a 
munsubdar, Tavernier, a jeweller, Bemier, a physician 
— and there may have been an Austin, an architect. 
True, that in the Roman Catholic burial-ground at 
Agra, there are old tombstones inscribed with Genoese 
and other Italian names. But when we see around us 
so many other magnificent mosques and mausoleums 
cognate in expression, we should either deny them all, 
or make no hesitation in acknowledging this. It has 
been very truly observed by one, that ^ the idea stamped 
upon the building is intensely Mahomedan and Ori- 
ental.' The Italians referred to were employed as mere 
diamond-cutters ; and Elphinstone thinks * it singular, 
that artists of that nation should receive lessons in taste 
from the Indians.' Tavernier saw the Taj commenced 
and finished, and he does not say a word about its exe- 
cution by Austin. Bernier came to India only five 
years after the Taj had been completed — and had it 
been constructed by one of his coimtrymen, the fact 
would assuredly have been commemorated in his writ- 
ings. The noble Tagra characters in which the pass- 
ages from the Koran are inscribed upon different parts 
of the Taj had been executed by one Amanut Khan of 
Schiraz. The name of this man is foimd inscribed in 
the same bold characters on the right-hand side as we 
enter the tomb. It is after the date thus : — ^A. 11. 
1048, ' The humble Fakir Amanut Khan of Schiraz.* 



The Taj a Masterpiece of Architecture, 417 

In the same manner, Austin de Bordeaux would have 
been permitted to place his narae^ had he been the bond 
fide architect. But it matters little whether the Taj is 
of European or of Indian hands — suffice it, that it is a 
masterpiece of human architecture. The Taj is in 
architecture what the Venus de Medici is in sculpture, 
or Shakespeare in poetry. 

One feels loath to come away from the Taj, the 
scene and the sight are so bewitching. The spirit of 
the lady seems to hoyer over the spot. Indeed, * one 
returns and returns to it with undiminished pleasure ; 
and though at every return one^s attention to the smaller 
parts becomes less and less, the pleasure which he de- 
rives from the contemplation of the greater and of the 
whole collectively, seems to increase ; and he leaves it 
with a feeling of regret that he could not have it all 
his life within his reach, arid of assurance that the 
image of what he has seen can never be obliterated from 
his mind ivhile memory holds her seat,' There is no 
traveller who has not been enthusiastic in praise of the 
Taj. * It is too pure,* says one, *too holy to be the 
work of human hands. Angels must have brought it 
from heaven, and a glass case should be thrown over it 
to preserve it from every breath of air.* In the words 
of Bishop Heber, 'though everything is finished like 
an ornament for a drawing-room chimney-piece, the 
general efiect produced is rather solemn and impressive 
than gaudy.^ * I asked my wife,* says Sleeman, * when 
she had gone over it, what she thought of the building ? 

*' I cannot/' said she^ " tell you what I think, for I 
VOL. I. 27 



41 8 Travels of a Hindoo, 

know not how to criticise such a building, but I can tell 
you what I feel. I would die to-morrow to have such 
another over me ? '* ' This is what many a lady has felt, 
no doubt — and which sums up the highest praise that 
can be bestowed upon the Taj. 

It is strange that history does not take that notice 
of the Taj which it deserves. But India has not its 
historian yet. Nor to this day has the Taj had any 
poet. It missed a very noble one in Childe Harold. 
Had he * crossed Earth's central line,' it would then most 
assuredly have been described in such heart-appealing 
language as 'filling the air around with beauty' — ^as 
* chaining us to the chariot of triumphant art, to stand 
as captives, who would not depart' — as *the poetic 
marble arrayed with an eternal glory ' — and similar 
other expressions in * words that breathe, and thoughts 
that burn,' without which adequate justice cannot be 
done to the Taj, but which were lavished away upon 
the Parthenon, the St Sophia, and the St Peter's. 
Lady-apostrophizing in honour of a lady, is like offer- 
ing * sweets to the sweet.' 

thou ! whose great imperial mind could raise 
This splendid trophy to a woman's praise ! 
If love or grief inspired the bold design, 
No mortal joy or sorrow equall'd thine ! 
Sleep on secure I this monument shall stand 
When Desolation's wing sweeps o'er the land. 
By time and death in one wide ruin hurl'd ; 
The last triumphant wonder of the world.* 

Pure as Mumtaza's spotless fame, 
The unsullied marble shines ; 



* By Lady Nugent, the wife of Sir George Nugent, Commander- 
in-Chief. 



The Taj by Moonlight, 419 

Rich as her lord's unrivall'd love 
The wreaths that deck their shrines. 

On fanes more glorious I have gazed, 

Witness St Peter's dome ; 
And costlier gems shine bright around 

The Medician tomb. 

But this 1 Love's temple — beauteous pile, 

The pride of Eastern art ! 
This boasts the present deity. 

That seizes on the heart. 

All ruling Power ! to thee we bend. 

Thy potent charm we own — 
This structure, simple, graceful, pure. 

Oh ! this is Love's alone.* 

No eastern prince for wealth or wisdom famed, 
No mortal hands this beauteous fabric framed. 
In death's cold arms the fair Mumtaza slept, 
And sighs o'er Jumna's winding waters crept, 
Tears such as angels weep, with fragrance fill'd. 
Around her grave in pearly drops distill'd. 
There fix'd for ever firm, congeal'd they stand, 
A fairy fabric, pride of India's land, f 

To see the Taj aright, it is said, one * must see it by 
the pale moonlight/ Madame Pfeiflfer followed this 
advice, and found ' the polished white marble to fall 
into vague undefined masses like heaps of snow.' She 
surmises rightly, ' that the first traveller who visited it 
by moonlight did so in company that made everything 
charming.^ 

The Taj is certainly the proudest of all sepulchral 
monuments. History records, that in commemoration 
of a dead wife, who had always yearned for her native 
mountains, a loving husband, Nebuchadnezzar, erected 
counterfeit forests and mountains, which nature had de- 

* By Mrs C. Fagan, the wife of Col. C. Fagan, Adjutant-General, 
under Lord Combermere. 
f Anonymous. 



420 Travels of a Hindoo, 

nied to Babylon. The royal sepulchre of Alaric was 
constructed in the bed of a river diverted from its 
course, and then restored to its channel. The grave of 
Jengis Khan was marked by a lofty mound, and then 
extensive forests were planted round it, to exclude for 
ever the footsteps of man from approaching his last 
abode. It is only the Pyramids that can fairly offer 
themselves to dispute for the award of superiority. But 
while the sepulchral works adorning the valley of the 
Nile will be regarded as wonders of art for their solidity 
of construction and sublimity of conception, the Taj at 
Agra shall always call forth the admiration of mankind 
for its being the most exquisite specimen of human 
architecture, and * the most gorgeous romance of wedded 
love.' 

The commemoration of departed worth, forms, as it 
were, a link between the mortal and immortal existence 
of a human being. Only the fine arts are employed to 
carry out its intents and purposes. Architecture raises 
a Pyramid or Taj. Sculpture makes the dull marble 
start into life. Painting makes a man live upon the 
canvas. Poetry embalms the dead in epic or elegy. 
The encouragement that is given to the arts and indus- 
try forms the only apology for all costly monuments, 
marbles, or mummies. In this economic and utilitarian 
age, a vehement protest would be raised against the 
outlay of three and a half millions sterling upon an 
undertaking like the Taj. The ancients were more for 
ornamental, the moderns are more for reproductive 
works. The world, like man, has its different phases of 



Public IVorks. 421 



character, in different epochs. It was religious in the 
time of the Hindoos, martial under the Romans, and 
shop-keeping in the present century. It is difficult to 
say what phase it will assume next. In all probability 
the ultimatimi of human society is destined to be the 
intellectual. 

The public works of a people embody the form and 
pressure of their age. The public works of the Hindoos 
were royal roads, rows of trees, canals and bridges, 
topes of mango and peepul, tanks and wells, rest-houses 
for the night, durmshalas or inns, hospitals, bathing- 
ghauts, and temples — all public works for the comforts 
only of the physical man. The Mahomedans nearly 
trod in the footsteps of their predecessors. Their reser- 
voirs, aqueducts, canals, gardens, serais, and mosques, 
exhibit but the same cares for the material well-being 
of a people, without any progress made by humanity 
towards the ameKoration of its moral condition. Far 
otherwise are the public works of the English. Their 
schools and colleges, literary institutes, public libraries, 
museums, and botanic gardens, are proofs of a greater 
intellectual state of the world than in any preceding age. 
It is not suited to the genius or inclination of the Eu- 
ropeans to build churches and temples. The age would 
not tolerate such a costly sentimentality as the Taj. It 
would be an anachronism now. The generations of the 
present day say that * they are not called upon to do 
anything for posterity — posterity having done nothing 
for them ? ' Supposing the English were to quit India, 
the beneficence of their rule ought not to be judged of 



422 Travels of a Hindoo, 

by the external memorials of stone and masonry left 
behind them, but by the emancipation of our nation from 
prejudices and superstitions of a long standing, and by 
the enlightened state in which they shall leave India. 
In the words of De Quincey, ^ higher by far than the 
Mogul gift of lime-stone, or travelling stations, or even 
roads and tanks, were the gifts of security, of peace, of 
law, and settled order.' 

Lounging in the gardens — the whole area is laid out 
in parterres of flowers and shrubs. The cypresses all 
round are in harmony with the solemnity of the scene. 
The orange trees are no less appropriate, to refresh the 
traveller with the juice of their fruit made into a cool- 
ing draught of sherbet. But the rectilinear flower-beds 
and paved stone walks, strike one as much too artificial. 
The principal avenue leading from the gateway is nearly 
a quarter of a mile long. Running along its centre is 
a row of fountains, eighty- four in number. To see these 
fountains spout their waters, and difluse a coolness 
through the air, is now a luxury that is reserved for 
great folks. The Taj appears to be kept in proper re- 
pair. But a slab is out of its place on the top of the 
great cupola, and betrays the inside work of masonry. 
There a wild fig-tree has taken root, to show that even 
a marble building is not safe from its encroachment. 
The Taj was completed in 1653. From that time it has 
withstood the assaults of the elements, and outlived 
some ten generations. In 1814, the late East India 
Company expended a lac of rupees on its repairs. But 
no more, as of yore, are there any Mogul bands to play 



Unfinished Tomb for Shah Jehan, 423 

music every evening ; nor is any eunuch at the head of 
two thousand sipahis placed as a guard over the building. 

There are two mosques on the east and west of the 
quadrangle facing inwards, and corresponding exactly 
with each other in size, design, and execution. Their 
dull blood-red sandstone makes a disagreeable contrast 
to the snowy white marble of the mausoleum. The 
mosque on the east, which cannot be used for worship, 
is said to have been built merely as ajowab (answer) to 
the other. 

Took, on departure, the last, long, and lingering 
view of the Taj. The noble dome, swelling out with 
its glittering mass in the sun seems to rise as by the en- 
chanter's wand. The stainless snow-white marbled 
structure seems to image the saintly purity of the lady. 
The sight * almost lifts one off the earth.' 

Opposite the Taj, on the other side, are seen the un- 
finished foundations, walls, and arches of a building that 
had been intended by Shah Jehan for an equally mag- 
nificent tomb over himself. It was to have been con- 
nected, by a marble bridge over the Jumna, with that of 
his lady. But the wars between his sons, and his own 
deposition, put a stop to the completion of the magnifi- 
cent work ; and the austere Aurimgzebe was not the 
man to attend to the fond wishes of a parent at so much 
waste of the public money. 

Just on the same principle that the child picks out 
the plums before he eats the pudding, has our reader 
been first treated with the kernel of sight-seeing in 
Agra. He must now make up his mind to digest a few 



424 Travels of a Hindoo. 



of its husk-peelings. The Hindoo antecedents of Agra 
are little known. No mention of it under any identifi- 
able name exists in Hindoo history or geography. The 
Great Gun, with its ancient characters, certainly pointed 
to a remote existence of the city. But the entire 
silence of Fa Hian and Hwen Thsang is a proof to the 
contrary of that existence in the centuries those Chinese 
travellers visited India. In the opinion of the Vishnu- 
vite authorities, Agra is so called from Agra, or the first 
starting-point for a pilgrim on his circuit of Vrij — the 
holy scene of Krishna's adventures. They say it 
was covered by forests for several hundred years, 
before Rupa and Sonatun, the followers of Choitunya, 
landed here to set out upon their exploration of Brinda- 
bun. According to Abul Fazil, Agra was a petty 
village before the time of Secunder Lodi, who first 
pitched upon this spot for the seat of his government, 
towards the close of the fifteenth century. But Jehan- 
geer in his autobiographical memoirs states it to have 
been a city of considerable magnitude, even prior to the 
advent of the Mussulmans, and that it had been spoken 
of in terms of admiration by a poet from Ghizni early 
in the eleventh century. This may have been the state 
of things under the gallant Dahimas, a branch of Raj- 
poot princes who flourished at Biana about the time 
alluded to. The statement also appears plausible from 
the fact of many Hindoo families yet occupying the 
neighbouring villages from a period of two thousand 
years' antiquity. But, in that case, it was most likely 
to have been noticed by the Arabian geographers of the 



^gra in the \6th Century, 425 

ninth or tenth centuries. Political considerations for 
expediting his marches against the Rajpoots, the com- 
mercial facilities afforded by the port, and also the 
desire for founding a new capital, induced Akber, in 
1566, to erect Agra into a metropolis to be called after 
him by the name of Akberabad. 

The Agra of the sixteenth century was a walled city 
of 26 miles circumference, of 100 mosques, 80 serais, 
800 public baths, 15 bazars, and a population of 
600,000 inhabitants. ' It was,^ says Fitch, ' a great and 
populous city, superior to London, well-built of stone, 
and having fair and large streets ' — when * Englishmen 
looked on India in ignorant admiration, and had a dim 
notion of endless bazars, swarming with buyers and 
sellers, and blazing with cloths of gold, with variegated 
silks, and with precious stones; of treasuries where 
diamonds were piled in heaps and sequins in mountains ; 
of palaces compared with which Whitehall and Hamp- 
ton Court were hovels ; and of armies, ten times as 
numerous as that which they had seen assembled at 
Tilbury to repel the Armada.' 

* Agra is one of the greatest cities in Hindoostan ; 
and being defended by a citadel of great antiquity, my 
father had caused such citadel to be thrown down, and 
a new fabric of hewn stone to be erected on the site, 
as will be noticed in another place. I shall here only 
remark, further, that the city is built on both banks of 
the Jumna, that part which is situated on the hither, or 
western side, being four coss in breadth and ten coss in 
circumference, and that on the opposite side being not 



426 Travels of a Hindoo. 

more than two coss in breadth, and three eoss in cir- 
cumference. The multiplicity of noble structures erected 
on all sides, such as mosques of superior magnitude, 
baths, spacious caravanserais, and splendid private 
palaces, are found to an extent that would place it on a 
par with the most celebrated cities in Irak, Chorasan, 
and the famed territorv bevond the Jihon, — the ordin- 
ary dwellings of the inhabitants being biiilt, for the 
greater part, three and four^tories high. Such is the 
inmiensity of the population, that from the hour of the 
evening prayer to the close of the first quarter of the 
night, the throng is so densely wedged, that it is not 
without the utmost difficulty the people can pass and 
repass along the streets. As an attempt to ascertain in 
some degree the extent of this multitudinous population, 
I directed the kotical or superintendent of the police one 
day to make a tour through the city, and count the in- 
dividuals assembled in the different maarkah^ or theatres 
for athletae or pugilists; and his report was, that in 
none of those places did he find assembled less than two 
or three thousand persons, although it was not the first 
of the new year, nor any of those days of public rejoic- 
ing, on which it was usual for the people to appear 
abroad for amusement. From this it is considered that 
some estimate mav be formed of the enormous multitude 
which thronged in every quarter. Add to this, that 
everv dav throughout the vear there were conveved to 
the place, by boats along the Jumna, not less than 
three thousand loads for fuel, and vet for dirrems it 
would be difficult to purchase a single branch, so rapid 



Agra in the igth Century. 427 

was the demand. For nearly eight months, moreover, 
which is the duration of the dry season, or the interval 
between the periodical rains, not less that five and six 
thousand horses for sale daily enter the city from Cabul 
and the countries in that direction, and such is the 
rapidity with which 'they are disposed of, that not one 
is to be purchased on the succeeding day. In short, I 
do not know in the whole world in magnitude, and the 
multitude of its inhabitants there is any city to be com- 
pared with the metropolis of Agra.' 

Such, in his autobiography, is Jehangeer's descrip- 
tion of Agra in its palmiest days. Imperfect as the 
census and statistics are, they are, nevertheless, accept- 
able for the Kght they throw on the ways and manners 
of that age. 

The Agra of the nineteenth century is four miles 
long, by three broad. The outer wall, formerly environ- 
ing the city as far as Secundra, is no more. Traces of 
the inner wall are still seen at places. It matters little 
about this ancient circumvallation, when ' a wall of men 
is better than a wall of masonry.' But a population 
reduced to 80,000 speaks of a serious diminution. No 
more are there any public baths, so useful in a climate 
in which men are roasted. No more are there any 
gymnasia for wrestlers, whose feats afibrded pleasure to 
the nobility and gentry of our land down to the last 
generation. Their profession has met a serious blow 
from the passion of our rulers for the amusements of the 
Turf. Not five horses are now sold here a day in the 
place of five thousand. The horse-trade of India has 



428 Travels of a Hindoo, 

left its old chaanel from Persia and Cabul. It now 
flows across the ocean from England, the Cape, and 
New South Wales. Indeed, Arab mares are, in many- 
instances, still preferred as the finest chargers for pur- 
poses of war and pageantry. But the office-jauns of 
our brokers and traders are drawn by geldings from 
Pegu, and the coaches of our aristocracy by walers and 
gigantic quadrupeds from England. The mimdees, or 
open squares, for the loading and unloading of goods, 
still retain many of their names. There is the LoJm-ka- 
inundee, where iron and iron goods must have been sold. 
There is the Peepur-mundee, which must have derived that 
name from its having been the depot for the sale of 
pepper. But all these mundees have been taken up, 
and are now crowded with the houses of the inhabitants. 
The ' splendid private palaces ' of the Omrahs have all 
disappeared long ago. Not a vestige remains of the 
aristocratical mansions of Rajah Maun^ Rajah Beerbul, 
the Khani Azim, Chaja Aias, Asoph Khan, or Mohabet 
Khan. Their very sites have been forgotten, and no- 
body now remembers the names of those worthies, or 
knows about the fate of their descendants, either become 
extinct or plebeianized into the undistinguishable com- 
monalty. Most of the present houses have been built 
from old bricks dug up. It is only of late that bricks 
have begun to be made at Agra. The old busfee was in 
the Taj gunge, which has nearly broken up. Here were 
the houses of the ancient nobility, in whose place have 
now sprung up families of rich Mahratta bankers, Mar- 
waree merchants, Lallah Mahajuns, and Cashmeree 



^gra, — the Chowk. 429 

Pundits, who occupy houses in Peepur-mundee or Loha- 
ka-mundee. There were, in those times, factories of the 
Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English at Agra. Now, 
only three or four wine- shops and millinery shops afford 
the data of the statistics of its foreign trade. In 1666, 
the Christian population of Agra consisted of 25,000 
families. The duties of the artillery, its arsenals, and 
foundries, were those by which that population had 
been principally maintained. Now, though under a 
Christian government, the Christian population would 
not amount to one-fourth of that number. Little, that 
has any architectural value, has been added by the 
English to the topography of Agra. The past — and the 
past alone— is uppermost in Agra. 

In the Chowk, however, a man still has to go elbow- 
ing his way through the crowd, and the noisy buzzing 
scene of an Indian bazar, well helps to give an idea of 
the teeming thousands of an Indian town. * The blaz- 
ing cloths of gold, variegated silks, and precious stones ' 
are still exposed here for sale. But the shops are 
no better than one or two-storied cabins, eight feet 
square. The Native principle of shop-keeping is to avoid 
show and dazzle— not to attract customers by exposing 
out the best wares and goods, as they do at the London 
Souse, or the Emporium of Fashion, No doubt, this 
principle is to be traced to the fears of an extortionate 
Mahomedan or Mahratta government. But, partly, 
the fault also lies in the Oriental prejudice of shopping. 
By the Natives, it is thought a positive disgrace to go 
and buy the best food or clothing for them from the 



I 



430 Travels of a Hindoo. 

market. Our women are much more sensible in this 
respect, and fail not to show a better knowledge of 
economy and bargaining, when out-of-doors to a mela, 
or upon a pilgrimage. This shopping-spirit of the 
Hindoo women appears to be a common feature in the 
character of the Aryan sisterhood. Female taste must 
exercise its influence before Native shop-keeping can 
have the refined attractions of the shops that adorn the 
sides of Tank Square. The streets in the Agra Chowk 
are stone-paved, and gently slope away from an up- 
heaved centre to the level of the city. Fifteen genera- 
tions have transacted here the daily business of theii- 
lives, and yet the pavement is in as good a state of 
preservation as when Queen EKzabeth sent Sir John 
Mildenhall on an embassy to the Great Mogul — 
or when William Hawkins was a munsubdar here of 
400 horse, with an income of £3000, and also an Ar- 
menian wife into the bargain. The nicest things to 
buy in the Agra bazar are models of the Taj, in ivory 
or stone-clay — the traveller carrying away the building 
to live in his recollections. 

The ekkas remind us of how Fitch * was struck bv 
seeing the grandees conveyed in little carts, carved and 
gilded, covered with silk or very fine cloth, and drawn 
by two little bulls of the size of dogs.' The bullocks 
spoken of refer to the dwarfish oxen of Guzerat, which 
count r}' had been conquered by Akber just ten years 
before the visit of that English traveller. >. Better 
coaches did not exist then in the metropolis of the 
Great Mogul. ' One of Sir Thomas Roe's presents from 



Population more Hindoo than Mussulman, 431 

James the First to Jehangeer (probably suggested by 
Fitch's account) was an English coach. But within a 
short period after the present had been made, the am- 
bassador was struck to see that several others had been 
constructed, very superior in materials, and fully equal 
in workmanship/ But this erau:lation died away with- 
out producing a permanent improvement in the coach- 
building of the country. Up to this day, the ekkas con- 
tinue to run in the streets of Agra. Riding is in 
general fashion through all Hindoostan, as driving is 
now the rage in Calcutta. No decent public convey- 
ances are available for strangers at Agra. 

Though properly a Mahomedan city, the popula- 
tion here is more Hindoo than Mussulman. 'It is a 
singular fact,' says a writer, 'illustrating the for- 
bearance of the Moguls, and the stability of the Hindoo 
village communities, that around Agra, though the 
seat of a Moslem government, hardly any instance 
occurs of a Mussulman claiming hereditary property in 
the soil, while many Hindoos can show that their an- 
cestors occupied the villages for twenty centuries.' The 
Mussulman population is gradually wearing out in all 
the cities of Hindoostan. There is no longer the tide 
of Tartar or Persian emigration to seek fortune in 
India, and recruit the numbers of their nation. Like 
most men of broken-down fortunes, the Indian Ma- 
homedan is now wrapt in the contemplation of his past 
antecedents. But he looks back with a sterile regret 
on the ages which can never return to him again. He 
has been lamed for all his days to come, and no more 



43^ Travels of a Hindoo. 

can he be up and doing. Alien he has always been, 
and he is now moreover a nonentity. The Hindoo 
community at Agra is formed of all classes of the 
nation — Mahrattas, Marwarees, Doabees, Cashmarees, 
and Bengalees. The Marwaree abounds in the largest 
number. Confined for ages to a sandy tract, and cut 
off from intercourse with^ the rest of his nation, the 
mildness and moderation of the English government 
have tempted him out from the retreats in which he 
struggled for food, and was kept behind in wealth and 
civilization. In perseverance, in shrewdness, in self- 
denial, in most of the qualities which conduce to success 
in life, the Marwaree has seldom been surpassed. He is 
now often engaged in speculations, by which he is dis- 
tinguished as the most commercial of all the Indians. 
Agra is the nearest outlet to his abode, by which he can 
conveniently pour himself into Hindoostan. Physical 
causes influencing his condition, have given to the Mar- 
waree almost a different ethnological variety. His bar- 
ren soU and the scarcity of his food are stamped upon 
his spare form, his fleshless muscles, and his sharp-con- 
tracted features. The poverty of his country is also 
bespoken by the scanty clothing upon his body. He is 
the only Indian who is politically a Hindoo, and who 
still wears the dhooty, and scarf, and ear-rings of his 
ancestors. 

The present commercial quarter of Agra is on the 
right of the bridge of boats as you enter the town. Of 
trade, deserving the name, there is little in Agra. The 
arts are also in a state of decay from the activity in 



Trade and Manufactures at Agra. 433 



which they had been seen by Sir Thomas Eoe. Carpet- 
making is observed in many of the shops. The producse 
of these far-away districts can never compete with the 
produce grown near the ports of shipment. The ancient 
wealth of the city is still helping the inhabitants, as 
are also the emoluments of the various offices imder the 
present regime. But the position of Agra makes it the 
most eligible outlet and inlet for the traffic of Rajpoot- 
ana; and when the Rail shall have removed the dis- 
abilities imder which its trade labours, and goods shall 
come up from the sea in twice the time that the earth 
travels roimd its axis, the place will rapidly advance in 
wealth and prosperity. 

Of course this month of October is not exactly the 
time to enable a man to judge of those great summer 
heats which led Shah Jehan to remove the capital from 
Agra to Delhi. The furnace-blasts of the loo are felt 
in the midsummer months. But greater than the heat 
is the execrableness of the water at Agra. It is almost 
undrinkable, next to sea- water. Coming on the way, 
we found on this side of Cawnpore the water of all the 
wells more and more brackish, till at last it had reached 
the nauseating point at Agra. This is on account of 
the nitre in the soil. The Jumna water tastes sweet 
enough. But the up-country wallahs are all prejudiced 
against stream-water. The Hindoostanee Durwans in 
Calcutta invariably prefer the well-water to the holy 
Gunga water. Perhaps, in a past scientific age, the 
Hindoo philosophers had made an analysis similar to 

that of the modem chemists, who pronoimce the saline 
VOL. 1. 28 



434 Travels of a Hindoo. 

contamination to be harmless. But whether it be from 
the dictum of science or experience, the people of Hin- 
doostan have a notable nicety of discrimination of good 
from bad water. The first question in the mouth of a 
travelling Hindoostanee is ^Haica panee kesa hye * — ^how 
are the air and water ? But the wells which yield 
brackish water are considered to be much more valuable 
for irrigation than those which yield sweet water. Ice 
is collected here in the cold weather, and can nowhere 
be so great a luxury as in a place where the heat often 
gives the ophthalmia and apoplexy. 

Oil-rubbing, as with the Bengalees, is also not in 
fashion among the Hindoostanees. Probably, they do 
not want the stimulative ointment which is a necessary 
protective against the damp of Bengal. But the Ben- 
galees living here testify to its soothing effect in a 
climate where the dry hot air tells with a caustic influx 
ence on the skin. Nor have the up-country wallahs 
any inoculation, much less vaccination, among them — 
though they are not without the Sitlee in the category 
of their goddesses. Nothing is more common to see in 
the North- West than handsome faces fearfully pock- 
marked. To have a pitted face matters little to a man 
— though to a Mussulman, with his shaggy beard, it fails 
not to give the truculence of a villain. But to exhibit 
an unconcern about its effects in the case of the other 
sex is a positive and unpardonable cruelty towards the 
famed Hindoostanee women and fair Rajputnees, who are 
thus most unfairly subjected to mourn themuselves as 
imderrated in the market of beauty, and to me looking 



The Agra College. 435 

at themselves in a mirror, just as anybody is disgusted 
at the horrible porosity of his frame seen through a 
microscope. 

The cantonments are two, and the civil station is 
six miles from the river. The Agra College, built in a 
Gothic style, stands in a fine quadrangle. Once on a 
time, Tom Corryat studied the Persian and Oordoo at 
Agra, and the Jesuits addressed the Great Mogul in his 
own language. Now, the Agra wallahs are eager to 
learn the language of Tom Corryat's countrymen. 
Akber encouraged schools, at which Hindoo as well as 
Mahomedan learning was taught, and ' every one was 
educated according to his circumstances and particular 
views in life.' But there is no comparison between the 
qualities of instruction then and at present imparted, 
and no distinction is now made between the boy of a 
farmer and the boy of a zemindar, on the common 
ground of an educational institution. 

These also are not the days when a man is first 
whipped and next made to kiss the rod,— or sent to be 
sold in China, for breaking a China porcelain. No 
woman is now buried alive for kissing an eunuch, — nor 
any man ordered to be trampled upon by elephants in 
the streets, for refusing to give up his beautiful wife to 
the Lieutenant-Governor. No molten lead is now 
poured down a man's throat for speaking treason, and 
no man's property is now appropriated by a royal ca- 
price, — or released from confiscation by a well-timed jest. 
Far from aU such, the humblest individual now freely 
speaks out his opinion. Judicial awards are given upon 



43^ Travels of a Hindoo, 

principles which the TiceroT caimot hare altered in all 
his life — much less at his whim. Prisoners are fed and 
initiated in trades to cease from their brigandage, and 
the sick and ailing are treated in pnblic hospitalsw The 
Agra College, the Dewanny and Fouzdarry Adanlata. 
the Thomason Hospital, the Bailroad, and the Electrxe 
Telegraph, are the memorials of British rule in the cifiT 
of the Taj. 

In the Agra barial-ground are many eurioos old 
tomht^ Thev are, manr of them* over IraK.-iTi and 
other European adventurers, who swarmed here in the 
seventeenth century. One of the tomhe is dated sb$ fiir 
hack as the year 1616. The tomb of Colonel Hesacng 
is on the model of the Taj. He was a Dutchman in 
Scindia*s service, who rose fironL a common soldier to be 
the Governor of Aara. 

Three or four churches now raie up their heads in 
Agra. But there was more Chriatimity here when 
Akber hid a leaning to adore the images of the Saviour 
and the Virgin, — ^when Jehangeer had figures of Chriat: 
and ILiTv at the head o£ his rosarv. — tiTtff when Dora 
Shekoh sat with Stanislaus Xalpica a2id Pedro J^uzarti 
130 studv the reli^jious i^vi>teui of the western worLL 
The Junmnih Mt^jt^m of Agra may stEIL be described in 
those verv words which Heber used fiirtv veors ago 
— ^^ it is picroresijue from ins negiectjed staDe. ^xnd the 
grass and peepul trees which o^row about tx& lutiy damesw* 
This mosq^ue was built by ^he Pyrntrm lehamaru 

On the 3«iuare where tibur ways meet. Ae sgrt-posc 
Aows the direcdon of the histi-rtwd tti wards G-walior. 



^grtty — the Relelliony — the Income Tax. 437 

In a south-easterly direction from the town was pointed 
out to us the battle-field from which the handful of 
British soldiers had to retreat before the rebel Sepoys 
from Neemuch. Not one European dared to show himself 
then out of the Fort. The 6th of July, 1857, was the 
great day of alarm in Agra. The Mahomedan popu- 
lation were very hearty with the rebels. Few of the 
Hindoos had joined their cause — the rich bankers and 
others having everything to lose, and nothing to gain. 
The Bengalees, as usual, had fast bolted up their doors. 
But the Mahomedan element at Agra is very needy, and 
without any influence. There are no rich Mirzas or 
Meer Sahibs to head a movement. Nowhere in India 
do the Mahomedans seem to be largely engaged in 
any trade or speculation. They generally prefer to 
be office-holders, hoping to rise by service, to which 
their nation has been bred up. There is no Hindoo 
or Mussulman in Agra who is as rich as any of our 
Calcutta millionnaires. 

The statistics of the Income Tax are expected to 
give us an idea of the comparative wealth of our Indian 
towns. Nothing could have been more welcome after 
the long day's tour and sight-seeing, than to sit down 
to the excellent supper got up by our host — a pleasant 
sequel to sum up one of the most pleasant days of our 
life. The supper was in a style to tempt a Catholic to 
break through his Lent. The conversation turned 

upon the principal subject of the day — Income Tax. 

* 

Throughout Hindoostan it is regarded as a national 
mulct for the Rebellion. The mysterious * wants of the 



438 Travels of a Hindoo. 

State' are incomprehensible to the popular understand- 
ing. As yet, the Tndians have not a common national 
mind to feel a concern for the welfare of a common 
State. They are busy about their own private fiscal 
prosperity, and indifferent to any outside calls of com- 
mon interest. It never enters into their thoughts to 
inquire about the annual income or expenditure of the 
State,^-or to care about its ' chronic deficits.' The 
eloquent English of our Finance minister has told upon 
a limited number, but has scarcely enlightened the mass 
of the population, beyond producing this conviction, 
that their pockets are to be touched not by any force of 
arms but by the force of arguments. Familiar only 
with the land-tax and customs, our nation needs the 
political education to be prepared for the innovations of 
a higher political science. Never before was the national 
debt known in India, where only the whim of a despot 
had to be pledged for its payment. Not more is the 
national debt foreign to the ideas of the North- Westerns 
than is the Income Tax. The Native mind must be 
taught to appreciate the wants of the State — to feel an 
interest in its well-being, before it will endorse the 
opinion that * taxation is no tyranny.' 

Our after-supper talk was kept up to a late hour. 
To the doctor it was left to play the heroic in our tale 
— to pledge our Hindoostanee friends in full bumpers, 
and retire to bed on the sea legs of Jack ashore. The 
tradesman had gulped down, in a pellmeU pillau, curry, 
fruits, grapes, cream, and comfits, and he found it un- 



First Night in Agra, 439 

comfortable to keep straight his spinal bone. The law- 
yer and ourself wound up the epilogue of the day with 
a delicious draught of iced sherbet, and then went to 
sleep for the first night in the city of Agra. 



END OF VOL. I. 



JOHN GUILDS AND SOX, PBINTEB8.